Giuseppe Cupane, president of the cooperative Violetto Rammachese
Italy: “Ratio between demand and supply of artichokes is suffering
“Our main products are two kinds of artichokes: Violetto and Romanesco or Romanesco-Apollo. Violetto is sold in the first phase of the producing campaign (from November to January) and then in this period as small artichokes for an industrial use. For the fresh market, Violetto artichokes are cultivated, crated up in two rows and sent to customers. Their price varies between 0.20 and 0.25 Euro. Small Violetto artichokes for industrial use are sold in crates and their price is about 0.05-0.06 Euro.”
Violetto Bouquet for the French market.
“Romanesco or Romanesco-Apollo, which is a little later, is also cultivated and crated. Its price varies between 0.30 and 0.40 Euro. Finally. Small Romanesco artichokes’ price is between 1.00 and 1.80 Euro”.
Romanesco-Apollo.
“Prices are lower than the few last years”, goes on Cupane, “our price list, anyway, refers to the price list of large-scale distributors (Coop Italy). For the whole commercialization campaign, from November till now, the list price has been 10%-20% lower than last year.”
“Weather conditions: from snow to frost, from wind to volcanic ash have affected the producing process so far”, Cupane declares, “in particular weather affected artichokes in January, February and March.”
As far as the foreign competition is concerned, Cupane underlines: “At the end of January, when the Violetto artichokes were already damaged by the weather conditions, Egyptian and Tunisian artichokes arrived in our markets. From the beginning of March foreign products start disappearing because there is the second producing cycle of Violetto artichokes and their price is slightly lower. On the other hand, there is no foreign product that can compete with Romanesco or Romanesco-Apollo.”
Violetto Bouquet for the French market.
“Our main markets are chains of large-scale distributors (Coop Italy first of all), wholesalers and specialized retailers, but above all fruit and vegetable markets all over Italy. The main foreign market is France, in particular the cities of Marseille, Lyon and Perpignan”, concludes Cupane.
Below: pallet of Romanesco-Apollo ready to be sent