Just how stimulating travelling for a professional farmer can be gathered from the experience of Carlo Ficarra, a young Sicilian fruit and vegetable grower from Santa Croce Camerina, in the Ragusa province.
Carlo Ficarra
From Mexico to Sicily
"I was born into a family of horticultural producers, like many others, and I took over a farm handed down from my grandfather to my mother. Until a few years ago, my farm only grew tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, bell peppers, oranges and lemons, but a trip to Mexico in 2016 changed my life. I came across a crop of pitayas, the so-called dragon fruit, and I was very impressed by the beauty of the flower, the fruit and, finally, the color of its flesh."
"As I asked the local growers for information, I discovered that there are different varieties of this cultivar, with different external colors: green, yellow and red. The flesh also develops different shades: white, red, magenta purple, etc. The impact of the colors and the countless internal reflections made me literally fall in love with this fruit."
"When I returned to Sicily, my passion pushed me towards diversifying production. Within a few years, I converted 20% of a total of 5 hectares to grow pitayas, and also introduced mangoes. Next year we will add another 3000 square meters, in addition to the current 1000 dedicated to tropical fruit. As with pitayas, we have different varieties of mangoes such as Tommy, Palmer, Maya, Kent, Kensington Pride and others: just a few trees for each, subdivided by ripening time. The marketing for both references is done by direct sale and shipping based on requests received via social media or the company's online shop."
"A further strong point is that we hold the organic certification and, therefore, my tropical fruits have an edge over standard products. Of course I cannot guarantee uniform and aesthetically perfect fruits, but connoisseurs go beyond appearance, at least when it comes to mangoes. As for dragon fruit, I can provide a certain homogeneity: from June to early October."
"From the point of view of remuneration, I can say that these are products with a high commercial value, especially because Italian (and organic) produce is always appealing not only to operators in the supply chain, but also and above all to end consumers. In fact, for pitayas, I charge no less than 12 euro per kg and 10 euro per kg for mangoes."
"Growing pitayas is a very demanding activity, because it requires a specialization that I have had to experiment and mature over the years amidst trial and error. Pollination, for example, only takes place at night and requires very meticulous and labor-intensive agronomic techniques. In Italy, I can be considered a pioneer in the professional production of dragon fruit and I take personal pride in this because of the years of sacrifices I have put in to reach this goal."
For more information: 
Carlo Ficarra
Pitaya Sicily
Santa Croce Camerina (RG) - Italy
+39 3296162799
[email protected]
www.pitayasicilia.com