Sicily: a difficult season for organic apples and pears
"Because of an adverse climate, in particular the spring frosts, the pear yield was very limited. In addition to this, we operate in a protected area in the province of Catania where hunting is prohibited and thus the already limited produce was affected further by animals" Marletta says.
"Also the apple yield was affected by the adverse weather. Apple is our main product. In particular, during the first 15 days of June 2011, continuing rain was recorded and this affected flowers and caused apple scab on produced fruit."
"Considering we are an organic company and the tools to intervene are limited, losses are serious" Marletta concludes.