"Various winter vegetables (artichokes, cabbage, broccoli and fennel) have been damaged by the low temperatures and bad weather. As for fruit, early apricots have been damaged all over Italy, as well as a few early nectarine variety in southern Italy. Spain recorded damage on early varieties in the south. In Romagna, buds were still closed so, provided nothing else happens, quantities should be normal albeit not as abundant as 2017," explains President Giancarlo Minguzzi.
Giancarlo Minguzzi, President of Fruitimprese Emilia-Romagna
The next summer campaign could be better than the previous. "During Fruit Logistica in Berlin, leading European chains were very interested in Italian summer produce. This was due to the low-quality of the Spanish summer produce supplied in summer 2017."
As regards the ongoing winter fruit campaign, "apples are the segment with the best performance, as the initial lack of produce (30-40%) led to higher prices. The pear situation is stable but a few low-quality batches risk driving prices down (smaller grades have storage problems). In addition, destocking is slow and the first batches from overseas are becoming available, so the market situation could become complicated."
The same goes for kiwis. "The 2017 harvest was 30% lower than usual, then destocking was not enough due to the high prices. On 15th February, stocks were 11% lower than 2017. What is certain is that we can't expect prices to increase now that we've reached the end of the campaign."