Boom in demand for organic broccoli despite the lack of manpower

"At this time of year, the availability of broccoli makes it an important competitive factor for farms, especially if it is organically grown. The favorable weather trend so far, for our agricultural processes, made it possible to market broccoli until the end of June, preserving both excellent physical and organoleptic profiles," says F.lli Dimallio, the majority shareholder of the Principe di Puglia cooperative that produces exclusively organic fruit and vegetables.

"The interest is really high, both from domestic and, above all, from foreign customers. We have still 70 hectares to harvest, but the shortage of manpower, a problem we hadn't encountered until now, is seriously hampering us because it is slowing down the fulfillment of orders. We are looking for at least 50 working units. We are also worried about the increases in temperature and, therefore, the consequent loss of produce".

"In the past few weeks since the emergency, there has been a 30% increase in demand for this reference. Once the product has been harvested, it is sent to our plants to be processed and packaged".

"There are still many retail chains in Italy that are requesting large volumes of broccoli, while abroad we are seeing an increase in orders, especially in Denmark, as well as in Germany and Poland. In the last two weeks, prices for both filmed and unpacked products have remained stable, despite the aforementioned manpower shortage".

"We've never sold so much broccoli in such a short time. We owe our appreciation to the company's human resources staff who, with their dedicated efforts, are handling every transition in the supply chain in the best possible way. This year it looks like Apulian organic products are gaining more recognition from national and international buyers."