"We are currently marketing fennel, celery, chard, chicory, plain and curly parsley, and dill. Plain and curly parsley and dill are mainly supplied to the German market together with fennel and celery. Germany is in fact absorbing satisfactory volumes, as far as we are concerned. The Italian market, on the other hand, is showing a discrepancy between prices in the field and what supermarkets are actually willing to pay. Consumption has slowed down, and for the Christmas period, the commercial situation is not as cheerful as in past years," reports Riccardo Vurchio, sales manager of Ortofrutticola Lamapaola, based in Andria (BT).
"We manage the production chain directly from sowing to harvesting, right up to packaging, in order to provide our customers with produce of a quality as good as freshly harvested one. Our company specializes in fennel, celery, and potatoes, as well as also broccoli, parsley, escarole, and curly endive. The target market has now expanded to include not only the main Italian and European fruit and vegetable markets but also big retail chains."
"If we talk about fennel, the product looks good, tastes good, and is healthy. However, it is not ready to be cut in many cases. For some time now, we have been searching for a fennel of a size suitable for what it should be at this time. We are cutting small sizes all the time. We have been experiencing summer temperatures until November, and the production is no longer staggered as we had planned. The goods being harvested today still had 20-25 days to go. Before December, chicory also experienced a period when there was a real lack of products of a suitable size. Moreover, the shelf-life was short. A lot of product was harvested, but also thrown away at the time due to the many complaints," explains Vurchio.
"Despite the scarcity of available goods, the price does not tend to increase. Fennel shows an average price of 1.40 euro/kg, celery and chicory are in the region of 1.00 euro/kg. It should be specified that prices are on an annual schedule for the foreign market, so they are not susceptible to weekly fluctuations, as is the case of the Italian market."
Ortofrutticola Lamapaola also trades with the Netherlands, which is experiencing a similar trend as in previous years. "The country that is absorbing the most produce at the moment is Germany. We also supply Switzerland with chard and fennel, among others, but the market is very stable and prices are not very high," Vurchio concludes.
Photos provided by Ortofrutticola Lamapaola
For more information:
Carmine Porro - director
+39 337 833882 
Riccardo Vurchio - sales manager
+39 391 1204375
Vincenzo Nannola - production and personnel manager
+39 392 5822265
Ortofrutticola LAMAPAOLA Srl
S.P. Andria-Trani km 2,800
76123 Andria (BT)
[email protected]
www.ortofrutticolalamapaola.it