The Sicilian lemon season is not going particularly well, not so much when it comes to quality, but rather for a delay (around 40 days) which has caused a lot of problems on a commercial level.
Salvatore Giardina
FreshPlaza has talked about it with Salvatore Giardina from Azienda agricola Fratelli Giardina di Siracusa (part of OP La Mongolfiera) which, amongst other products, grows and commercializes the well-known lemons from Syracuse, particularly appreciated all over Europe for their excellent organoleptic qualities.
"Despite the delay, lemons are in line with our usual standards, though the drought and high temperatures caused many problems especially when it came to the ripening and coloring of the fruits. Unfortunately we lacked the rain and cold temperatures for too long, which penalized us on the commercial front. We must also consider the cost increases, which do not enable us to obtain a fair remuneration."
"Markets both in Italy and abroad are rather slow, which also contributes to this difficult situation as prices are lower than last year and, considering the higher production costs, this translates into a very low or inconsistent growth index. At the moment, lemons achieve 60 eurocents for good quality produce destined to fresh consumption, with an additional 10 eurocents for the organic produce."
"Demand is slow abroad as well, which does not support us on a market that sees leading foreign players such as Spain reach not only central and northern Europe, but Italy as well. Then there is also the produce from Greece and Turkey and more: while, up until ten years ago, there were no competitors in Italy, now lemons are grown all over the south of Italy and quantities increase year after year."
"As for the main diseases, we are registering the presence of mal secco (Phoma tracheiphila), though it has become endemic and we have learned to live with it. Of course we are hoping that there will not be a new outbreak."
For further information:
OP La Mongolfiera
Dr. Sergio Giardina
Siracusa – Italia
+39 3351305406
[email protected]