"There are very little fresh grapes left on the vines, mostly of the Italia variety, and the campaing will end over the next ten days in Mazzarrone," reports Giovanni Raniolo (in the photo below), President of the Consorzio di Tutela dell'Uva di Mazzarrone IGP.
"All the volumes have been harvested and placed on the market. The campaign ends earlier every year, which can be positive as it also starts earlier. This season, we started mid-May with greenhouse produce and continued with Italia grapes from mid-August. At the moment, very limited quantities of Black Pearl are also available."
"Unlike other areas, we increased the sale of Italia grapes and a 20% increase was also registered for PGI produce, whose total production reaches 1,500 tons (it was 250 tons four years ago). New retailer chains have started to get interested in our produce."
"Producers were rather satisfied with their profits thanks to the favourable weather - there was no heavy rain until October and it was quite dry. Luckily Italia grapes thrives in dry weather."
"Grapers are cultivated in a traditional way - even if grades are smaller, organoleptic qualities such as colour and sugar content are better."
As regards Victoria grapes, the President reports that the campaign was rather positive until late July, when the early produce ended. "Things are rather quiet between late July and late August. Then production prices were good, especially for the Italia variety."
"A lot of produce has reached the Middle East from July onwards. These markets managed to fill the gap left by Russia. This year, in particular, we shipped a lot to the Arab Emirates, but there are also new markets in Sri Lanka and Brazil."
"We have even solved bureaucratic problems with Canada and the first containers left in late September. The quality of the produce shipped was very good. Only a couple of containers were sent over this year, but Canada could become quite an important destination as of next year."
"We believe there will be a further evolution towards our traditional grapes, those with seeds. People will invest mainly in the Italia variety."
Contacts:
Giovanni Raniolo - President
Consorzio uva da tavola IGP di Mazzarrone
Email: uvaigpmazzarrone@libero.it