Fennel quotations are recovering on the Cesena market: the local produce is almost finished and so there is room for that from Southern Italy. Lower supplies and temperatures that favour demand are pushing sales.
The winter fennel season in the South started in early October and will continue until March/April, when produce from the North will arrive.
The campaign started rather well despite overlaps of the latest local productions. In the first 10-15 days of October wholesale prices hovered around € 80 cents per kg.
Then sales and quotations dropped, probably because of a short period of warm weather that slowed consumption down - prices decreased to 60 cents per kg.
Prices have finally started growing again in the past 4-5 days as the local produce finished and they reached 80-90 cents per kg. They are expected to increase further in the next few weeks, although a lot will depend on the weather. Estimates talk about €1 per kg, which is considered a good price.