"The asparagus season is livening up, even if most produce will only become available in April. At the moment, asparagus comes from Sicily, Puglia, Sardinia and Campania."
What wholesalers recommend is to process produce precisely - sometimes they may see asparagus that is not cut well, of different lengths and with bad looking shoots. This is not good for business, because there may be premium quality produce coming from abroad.
Roberto Piazza (left) and Valentino Di Pisa
Valentino di Pisa, president of Fedagromercati and owner of a stand at Caab, also stresses the need to focus on quality. His stand is the only one in the market to have an organic range managed separately from the traditional produce.
One operator shows us a batch of asparagus from Mexico. They cost €7/kg but are completely edible, perfectly cut and with good packaging. Other asparagus, also from Italy, is sold at €3.50/kg, but only half of the shoot is edible so, in the end, they cost just as much as the foreign ones. We say this just to point out that we cannot always think that what is local is "good" and what is imported is "bad".
As regards citrus fruit, Piazza reports that the market is rather lively at the moment, and so does operator Nello Clemenzi. "Prices are good for Tarocco in particular, as there is not a lot of produce available. They vary between €1 and €2.30/kg depending on grades. Quality is excellent and the fruit is very sweet."
Clementines imported from Spain have ended. The Italian produce hasn't been available for a while and has had to deal with bad weather problems.