The drop in celery volumes pushed prices up to twice or even three times the season average.
"There is a lot less celery due to the lack of rainfall in summer," explains Fabio Collella, a producer from Apulia.
Because of the lack of rain, the producers who could not use the wells had to find their water somewhere else, but "it gets very expensive and so many did not even produce celery."
This of course had an effect on prices. "In the local markets, we managed to sell the produce at €1.50/kg at origin."
"We finished harvesting a couple of days ago, but there are a few regions we find it difficult to sell to. This year was quite good around here actually, as the produce from Apulia was not good due to it being too hot. We started in July at 30 cents per kg and reached 80 cents," explains Alessandro Venditti from Abruzzo.
"Usually, we only reach 23-25-27 cents, but we manage to triple that this year!"
The situation was the same in the north of the country. Treviso reached 80 cents and even €1 per kg, whereas usually celery is sold at 40-70 cents per kg.
Author: Andrea Minghelli
Copyright: www.freshplaza.it