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President Rabboni: "The industry confirms its production potential and teamwork”
Agricultural producers’ organizations and processing companies in northern Italy have signed 125 contracts for the cultivation and supply of processing tomatoes during the 2022 season.
The contracts, as agreed between the parties, have been sent to northern Italy’s processing tomato Interbranch Organization for verification of their compliance with the requirements set by the framework contract of the "Northern Italy" region, signed last April 12 by producers’ organizations and processors. The result of the checks carried out by the Interbranch Organization confirmed the compliance of the individual company contracts with the requirements set out in the regional contract. The contracted raw material conforms to the requirements of processors and the national and international markets. The organic tomato crop has carried over the same volumes as last year.
"Despite current uncertainties, the attractiveness of other crops and the increase in the cost of energy and technology, the processing tomato sector of northern Italy has also confirmed for 2022 its production potential and its ability to work as a team”, stated the President of northern Italy’s tomato IO, Tiberio Rabboni. "If production in 2022 is not affected by climatic incidents and drought, which are still a risk, it will be able to adequately face the reality of the markets. With regard to the very serious drought underway, we have actively cooperated with the regional authorities of northern Italy to request, pending the implementation of structural solutions for greater availability of irrigation water, a reasoned review of the management of the “minimum vital flow” of rivers and streams to reconcile, in the presence of limited water availability, the various priority needs. The recent authorization of the Emilia Romagna Region for sourcing water from the Trebbia River by derogation in the Piacenza province municipalities of Rivergaro and Gazzola is a positive sign in this direction.”
In northern Italy, field planting operations began in the spring and will end in June. The harvesting season will begin in the second half of July, and processing in the factories will last until the end of September. Climate change is having serious repercussions on all agricultural production due to extreme weather incidents and, in particular, the scarcity of water resources.
The water crisis has already been felt in recent months and, in all likelihood, will worsen over the summer. In addition to the rivers of Apennine origin, the criticality of the water situation is also affecting the Po river, whose flows observed in the February-April 2022 quarter were more or less comparable to average summer figures for the June-August period. In this regard, the Pomodoro Nord Italia IO, which represents in terms of consumption a sector generating a value of over EUR 2 billion, has long been committed to supporting the implementation (with funds from the PNRR (Recovery and Resilience Plan) and the National Irrigation Plan) of the projects of the Development Consortia that can increase the water storage and irrigation capacity in the most problematic areas.
Sources: OI Pomodoro Industria Nord Italia
