The rain of the past few weeks heavily affected the spring onion harvest. It is a pity, as the conditions for an excellent gross saleable production were all in place: both prices and yields were high.
Sonic variety
"The market is requiring this product and prices hover between €0.50-0.60/kg, which is high especially considering that yields are considerable. Some areas in Emilia exceeded 70 tons per hectare, but everything is going well," reports a technician from northern Italy.
Harvesting of the Sonic variety
The problem is that rain is hindering harvesting operations as the soil needs to be partially dry for tractors and machines to work. Sunlight must then dry the bulb once extracted from the ground.
"We actually risk having grades that are too big, above the 70-80 average. It is a good moment, even because a lot of produce is being exported. As there is no produce from Holland and from other northern countries, people searched for the Italian one, with very good prices for producers."
The produce grown in winter has very pleasant organoleptic qualities. It is not sweet, but it is definitely more easily digestible and "lighter" than the one harvested in August. In order to supply domestic onions all year round, the produce sown in Autumn needs to be promoted more.