Drop in the 2016 chestnut harvest.
In Campania, the leading producer region, 90% drops are expected. Lower volumes are expected everywhere in the south, while there should be a slight recovery in the north, though there are a few areas dealing with lack of rain. The fight against gall wasp is doing rather well in the north but, in central and southern Italy, the bad weather combined with the damage caused by the insect.
"At least last year we could carry out treatments, but this year there are no burrs. This happened because, in addition to plant stress and gall wasp problems, temperatures were too low during blossoming."
The weather is causing quite a few problems for trees, "just think that 32°C were registered in the Salerno area in the past few days, and it is almost November!"
As the years go by, it seems that Italy is being replaced by Greece, Turkey, Spain and Portugal. "Almost all the produce available on the Italian market is imported. I believe there will be good years in the future though."
In 2015, despite the partial recovery of the domestic production, Italy imported over 32 million kg of chestnuts (against the 6 million kg of 2010).