"For us, the exports of Sicilian blood oranges are over as, after the heavy rain and strong winds of February 8-9-10, the produce was significantly damaged and most of it cannot be sold," reports Pietro Russo, production and commercialization expert with a company based in Lentini (SR).
Pietro Russo
"The heavy rain and very strong winds affected the produce still on the trees, leading to an unreasonable hike in prices and to foreign buyers being unwilling to purchase and largely deciding to remove blood oranges from their assortments. Unfortunately, Sicily is once again paying for the confusion that ensues when unexpected situations happen. We believe we are the only ones with a certain product, while the big retail chains, especially foreign ones, manage to replace us with produce from other origins."
"The price increases caused by the general hikes in costs (electricity, fuel, packaging and, mainly, higher production costs with considerable increases for fertilizers) caused 30-40% increases compared with 2022. This has been difficult to digest for buyers, even though they are partly aware of the situation, leading to a stall in wholesale negotiations and to a considerable drop in produce handling, as the prices discourage consumption."
As for produce quality, this year, "fruits ripened earlier due to the abnormal high temperatures in the fall. Then the temperature changes favored the pigmentation of blood oranges, which meant our fruits were much appreciated. There was a lot of demand especially for new Tarocco varieties (Ippolito and Ross), which did well on the foreign markets. However, due to the low availability of these new cultivars, their price was high and unfortunately not welcome by our contacts. As the volumes of these varieties will increase over the next few years, the price will level, which will certainly be a good thing for our exports."
"The prices were high at the start of the season for Naveline blond oranges as well, but quotations were refused by the buyers due to the more affordable prices of the produce from Spain, Greece, Egypt and Morocco. In order to be able to sell, we need to align with their prices."
For further information:
Ignazio Russo
G.Russo & C. s.n.c.
+39 3358427358
[email protected]
www.arance-pinguino.it