It will take a few more weeks for the clementine season to come to an end in Puglia. The sales trend has been different from last year despite the large percentage of small grades.
Floriano Convertino from Convif in Massafra (Taranto), a company boasting 45 hectares destined to citrus fruit and multiple clients in Italy and abroad, explains that: "we are expecting to continue until mid-February. We still have 35% of volumes to sell. This has been without doubt one of the best years. Of course the quotations of unprocessed produce have lowered considerably compared with a few weeks ago, but they never dropped below €0.50/kg, unlike in previous campaigns."
In addition to the delayed ripening, the weather also played a part in prolonging the season, which is still favorable in cultivation areas with little precipitations during harvesting, meaning fruits have a good shelf-life and texture.
"There is a lot of enthusiasm on the markets and consumption has remained the same. Production has been truly abundant in the Taranto area this year with around 150 thousand tons of clementines, maybe double those of 2022/23. Recently, we have experienced a few bottlenecks as local growers were afraid of frost damage and hastened harvesting operations, flooding warehouses and markets. Wholesale prices dropped from the €1.10/kg of the first week of January to the current €0.80-0.90/kg for the processed produce. The coming to an end to the campaign in Calabria could make supplies from Puglia more interesting. We are hoping for a surprising finish. The only worry is that what's left of the production might overlap with other late clementine or tangerine cultivars."
For further information:
Azienda agricola Convif
74016 Massafra (TA)
+39 330 880 689 - 099 4000644
[email protected]