Despite starting slightly late due to the incessant rain in May, the potato campaign in Puglia is now in full swing.
"We started harvesting as soon as the weather improved and, at the moment, we have harvested 80-90% of the produce. Then we will start to sell produce that has been stocked, which will be made available in July," explains a producer.
Things are going definitely better than last year. "Sicily started very early and, thanks to the lively demand, sold a lot of its production. This in turn has meant competition was not as fierce for the produce from Puglia, which helped,"
Quotations are also better than 2018. "Demand is satisfactory, especially on the Italian market, so it shouldn't be a problem to sell the limited quantities remaining. Things could actually improve further."
Volumes currently satisfy the usual clients, but it is not always possible to meet the requests from new clients as, luckily, there is no excess produce.
"Italian new potatoes are in competition with the produce from North Africa and Cyprus, but Spain has also organized itself to supply excellent produce over the past few years."
This year, much of the production was sold on the Italian market. "The foreign markets requiring more products are definitely Belgium and Germany followed by France, where usually stocks are the last to run out, so demand increases in July and August."