OI Pera has carried out a first assessment of the 2019 Italian pear campaign and has reported an unprecedented drop in production.
The production deficit was already evident in early July estimates as the domestic production was calculated at 511,000 tons due to the bad weather and pollination problems.
The supply can now be estimated at around 365,000 tons against the 730,000 tons of 2018 and 934,000 tons of 2011. In Emilia-Romagna, production was estimated at around 243,000 tons against the 357,000 estimated in early July.
"This difference between the estimates and the data now available is ascribable to the serious problems caused by the brown marmorated stink bug and alternaria, which could not be envisaged three months ago," explains OI Pera president Gianni Amidei (in the photo).
"These two factors led to a reduction in quantities and also affected the quota of produce suitable to be commercialized fresh. Compared to a normal year where almost 70% of the produce can be commercialized fresh, we are now talking about 55%."
Abate pears
"This situation will unfortunately cause problems to many companies. We need to help them financially to salvage such an important sector but we also need to focus on research to provide a solution to this situation."
"As an interbranch organization, we deeply believe in research and we will promote and coordinate a few leading research projects together with CRPV so as to fully take advantage of the funds made available by Regione Emilia-Romagna via regional development plans."