Indian figs are a niche product whose popularity has been increasing over the past few years. They are a typical southern-Italy product and are available between August and late November/early December.
"We handled a little more produce than last year and demand was higher. The season was quite positive, though there were some quality problems in September," explains a wholesaler from Bologna.
Prices hovered around €1.20 for bulk produce and €1.60-1.70 for 16-fruit crates, but were higher for bigger grades, up to over €2.70/kg for 12-fruit crates.
The Bologna wholesale market (Archive photo).
"Harvesting is almost over, this year a little earlier than usual. It looks like the market has been improving in the last few years, both form a production and consumption point of view," explains a Sicilian producer.
"Volumes were lower than in the past, and there were no overlaps or leftover stocks. Harvesting depends on ripening, which depends on the temperatures. This year they were rather stable throughout the campaign."
The only problem were output prices as "they were 20 cents lower than 2014. This is bad news especially because harvesting and packaging costs are quite high and because only 20% of 100 kg of fruit had big grades."
Author: Andrea Minghelli
Copyright: www.freshplaza.it