"Our clementine campaign ended more than 2 weeks ago. About 800 tons were sold during the whole season, with an average price of 0.55-0.60 €/kg compared to 0.70-0.80 €/kg of the previous year. The 2017/18 campaign saw over 3,000 tons of sold clementines, while in 2010/11 they were about 5,400. The quantities tend to decrease over time," said Gianni Martucci, of the Apulian company of the same name that specializes in processing and marketing citrus fruits.
"The recent campaign has been a negative one. A lot of product has gone unsold or was left to rot on the plants. The demand for the clementine Comune remained low for almost all the harvesting period. Only in certain moments of the year, like after the frosts in January 2021 in Spain or in the final part of the campaign, we saw a slight boost in requests".
"Although the fruit was excellent inside, a good part of Italian crops did not find a market because of their appearance, with spots due to the excessive rains of the past months. We hoped in a better outcome for the Hernandina and Mandalate varieties, which did not show any bad appearance, but also in this case there was not the high demand we were used to seeing. It looks like the consumer has just refused to eat clementines this year".
"Many traders have lost out, because, in times less auspicious, they bought the undamaged product at prices of 0.30 €/kg in the field (to which must be added the costs of harvesting, transport and processing), but, as the months went by, the market tightened for various reasons, thus reducing consumption and, consequently, also quotations. We preferred to close the campaign a few days in advance, otherwise we would have lost out as well, since our company's policy is that of conferring instead of buying in bulk," concluded the operator.