The commercialisation of aubergines is very similar to that of courgettes at the moment, at least in Bologna. The price of courgettes remains high at over €2/kg, and the same is happening to aubergines.
"They are expensive, very expensive. Consider that in Sicily, they are asking as much as €2.40/kg, some even more."
Just think that 10% is added to these prices, so of course aubergines from Sicily will cost over €2.50/kg. "A fair price in this period should be around €1.50-1.80/kg." The situation has been like this for the past two weeks.
The Bologna wholesale market. (Archive photo)
"It's crazy. Consumers might be willing to pay these prices once, maybe twice, but then they will be looking for alternative cheaper products. Demand will therefore drop, as will quotations, and it will be hard to recover from there."
The reason for this is the fact that only greenhouse produce from Sicily is available. "And Sicilian production is scarce probably due to the bad weather of the last period."
"These prices are favouring aubergines imported from Spain, which are sold at a few dozen eurocents less."