Italy: January a crucial month for kiwis
Demand was lively during January and, considering production was 22% lower than 2015, on 31/1/2017 stocks were 28-30% lower than in 2016.
The cold temperatures that affected most of Italy and Europe pushed the consumption of citrus fruit and kiwis. The first country where kiwi demand increased was Italy, also because of the lack of oranges caused by the CTV-Citrus Tristeza Virus and the bad weather in southern Italy.
The larger grades benefited from this situation, followed by the other grades all over Europe, also thanks to a few special promotions in some northern European chains.
Demand overseas recovered well (as expected), especially for what concerns big grades (demand from Asia and Australia). Exports should decrease due to higher demand in Europe (from March onwards), so shipments overseas are expected to end earlier than 2016.
There is still produce from Greece available on the European market and, because of the good demand, the price gap with respect to Italian quotations diminished in November and December. This is also because Greek stocks are stored by more structured companies. January was therefore crucial for the 2016/17 campaign and things went rather well.
At the moment, the good demand has led to limited price increases and stocks have created a "base" for further increases during February and possibly also during March and April.
In particular, because of the lower quantities available from Greece and Piedmont, the hope is that it will be possible to promote the product more in March and prepare for pre-Easter promotions with additional increases (especially for big grades).