Italy: Kiwifruit season with Gianni Amidei, director of Agrintesa
“From the beginning we knew it was going to be a difficult campaign – Amidei starts – due first of all to the huge production of green-fleshed fruit. Moreover, there were strange weather conditions in autumn characterized first by drought and then during the harvest by incessant rains. Finally, the economic crises affected sales.”
“The huge quantity of products raised concern, even after the first months of commercialization, also because New Zealand products were in the market until December 2011 and the planned commercial promotion could not be made. However, since January, kiwifruit has been sold all over the world above all in Asia, Canada, the USA or Balkan countries where small-sized products are sold.”
As for weather conditions Gianni Amidei has explained how in the campaign 2011-12 fruits were kept thanks to the harvest at 7 Brix degrees (sugar content), which is quite unusual (it is usually 6-6.2 Brix). “The problem was flesh toughness due to a deformity of the branches which led to a little homogeneity in maturity and consequently difficulties in foreign markets.”
The economic crisis did not affect the campaign so much because generally kiwifruit has a low consumption per head. “Prices were not as expected but not too low.”
The situation is different for yellow-fleshed fruit, which are always highly demanded and when there is not enough supply incomes will be not satisfying.
The director of Agrintesa has also underlined a positive aspect, “Despite the crisis we are improving our exportations in terms of transport planning and scheduling and so shelf life.”
“Asia, China, the USA, Russia represent our future markets, Russia for example, imported more than in 2011.” Amidei explains: “Until there is yellow-fleshed kiwifruit there will be problems of inoculation. Indeed, we can defend green-fleshed fruit but we cannot assure yellow-fleshed variety. We already know there will be a drop of 30% in production in 2012-13.”
Finally, after a difficult and cold campaign 2011-12, Amidei expects the campaign 2012-13 to be more satisfying, at least for winter fruit such as kiwifruit, apples and pears, which have regular production.