The orders for asparagus slowly started to decrease this June. However, sales of the Italian product may end about two weeks later this year.
"Usually, the last pallets are shipped no later than the first half of June, but this time we think we will extend the sales calendar until the end of the month. The peak production is already over, although this year it actually never occurred. The abnormal spring weather patterns, with below-average temperatures and poor light, caused a lack of continuity in production and the turions did not sprout steadily, generating a drop in quantity of about 15 percent compared to 2022. Such climatic upheavals led the plant to stretch the production cycle by a few days," says an Apulian trader, who exports asparagus mainly to Eastern and Central European countries.
Thus, it was a year of ups and downs on the agronomic front. "In late April, after days of unstable weather, producers thought that with the arrival of mild weather, the turions would have increased and thus regularized growth, but then May also turned out to be very rainy. The incessant rainfall, including the hailstorms that occurred in the Apulian areas, therefore did not help to have the quality usually expected by customers. However, operators understood this issue right away, and it did not cause too much of an impact in terms of complaints, disputes and possible depreciation."
In spite of everything, quotations remained consistently high, with price increases of 15-20% compared to the past campaign, allowing farmers to compensate for losses caused by the bad weather.
The Apulian operator tells us that the drop in orders for asparagus has been strongly felt for the past ten days or so. "Since the beginning of June to date, requests from customers have already dropped by 20-25%, partly because the first harvests from Hungary, Poland, and other European countries are starting to show up on the markets."