"The summer/autumn campaign of pears and apples started rather well, then in November the price of Abate pears started falling because it was affected by Rochas from Portugal and Conference from Belgium/Holland. In addition, the drop in consumption and an over-evaluation of prices in the fields meant sales managers could not achieve the sales they were looking for," explains Giancalro Minguzzi (in the photo below), chairman of Fruitimprese Emilia-Romagna and of the Minguzzi Spa PO.
The campaign started well for apples too, then sales in the last few weeks were lower than expected. "This means we will have bigger stocks in January, but people prefer apples in February and March, so there is still hope."
The market is already dynamic for kiwis. "Harvested quantities were lower than expected (-20/25% only in Emilia-Romagna), but quality is good and grades are above average. Exports make us hopeful, especially since, in the final months of April and May 2014, there should not be much competition from Chile, as freezes halved the production."
"The trend of summer production is an indication for the future. Peaches and nectarines did well between May and July, whereas August and September were a disaster. We have to renew the varieties, as our produce was not valued well abroad in August-September and we need to be competitive again. In early summer we probably benefited from the low quality and quantities of Spain (just like in 2012)."
Plums were of good quality and quantity, even though prices were lower than expected. "We expected lower quantities, but in the end it did not go that way. In the future, I would like there to be more precise information on production in the European markets."