Giovanni Ancona, one of the owners of Fratelli Ancona said, "this year, warm temperatures in winter caused a number of problems. Fennel was ready 40 days earlier than usual. In addition, there have been some violent hailstorms recently, which damaged the produce even more. We should start harvesting late varieties in 10 days time and demand is already high."
The same has happened in Campania, as Giovanni Orlando from Ortolando explained, "there is little produce available as part of the produce was early and some of it was damaged by rain. It is difficult to satisfy demand. Now we are waiting on the late varieties, as they should be early as well."
The company sells the majority of its produce to domestic markets, whereas only a little produce goes to retailers (20%) or abroad (10-15%).
The situation seems to be the same in Spain.