Final results of the 2026 campaign in Northern Italy: yields among the lowest in recent years

A total of 3.2 million tonnes of tomatoes were delivered to the industry. Heatwaves, drought and hailstorms penalized yields and agricultural income. High energy costs and low processing yields raised processing industry costs beyond measure. The challenge for 2027 is an early and shared production planning between the agricultural sector and industry.

The Interbranch Organization OI Pomodoro da Industria Nord Italia outlines the balance sheet of the 2026 campaign in the area that includes Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and the autonomous province of Bolzano. The season was characterized by growing acreage and an overall quantity of tomatoes delivered to the industry never reached before and in any case below the contracted amount as it was heavily affected by climate change, low field yields, and the increase in agricultural and industrial production costs.

The Interbranch Organization OI Pomodoro da Industria Nord Italia outlines the balance sheet of the 2026 campaign in the area that includes Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and the autonomous province of Bolzano. The campaign recorded an increase in cultivated area and an unprecedented total quantity of tomatoes delivered to the industry, but quantities remained below those contracted. Weighing on the campaign were above all climate changes, low field yields, and the increase in production costs, both agricultural and industrial.

The campaign opened on March 27 with the signing of the area framework agreement between the agricultural and industrial sides. Transplants, which began at the end of March, continued until around June 20, while harvesting and processing started on July 10, significantly ahead of historical standards.

In 2026, the area cultivated with processing tomatoes in Northern Italy reached 48,349 hectares, of which 43,477 under integrated production and 4,872 under organic production, representing 10.1% of the total.

The overall quantity delivered to the industry reached 3,205,126 tonnes, an unprecedented result for the area, with a drop of about 14% compared to the contracted tomato volume. The figure must be read in light of production yields, which stopped at 66.3 tonnes per hectare, compared to an average of 71.6 t/ha recorded by the OI over the last five-year period. In detail, yields were 68.0 t/ha for integrated production and 51.3 t/ha for organic production. These are among the lowest values recorded by the OI since 2011. The increase in acreage did not translate into proportional production growth, also due to hailstorms that hit thousands of hectares in the area and reduced the produced quantity.

Weather trends were the main critical factor of the season. Exceptionally high daytime temperatures, warmer nights than usual, and almost absent rainfall subjected crops to severe stress, compromising plant development during flowering and causing flower drop, reduced berry size, and low yields, especially in mid-period productions.

Difficulties were aggravated by the limited availability of irrigation water, as early as the end of June, and restrictions on surface water abstraction. In several areas, producers had to resort to well irrigation, incurring higher energy consumption and additional costs.

To these critical issues were added repeated hail events in the month of July, with widespread phenomena that caused severe damage to thousands of hectares. Among the most affected territories are the provinces of Mantua, Modena, and Ferrara.

From the start of harvesting until mid-August, the sector had to manage a strong concentration of deliveries, with high volumes in a short period. The critical situation was overcome thanks to the collaboration between producer organizations and processing companies, called upon to make an extraordinary effort to organize delivery and absorb the volumes being delivered.

The industrial side concurrently had to face high costs, particularly for gas and electricity necessary for processing and low transformation yields that resulted in the output of less finished product than planned. The agricultural sector also suffered from the rise in fuel prices, which increased significantly starting in April.

In view of the 2027 campaign, the president of the OI Pomodoro da Industria Nord Italia, Giuseppe Romanini, is therefore promoting the adoption of a shared method of production planning:

«As president of the Interbranch Organization, I am trying to actively promote, in preparation for the 2027 campaign, the supply chain’s adoption of a method with fixed deadlines and shared knowledge data between the agricultural and industrial sides on which to base annual production planning, going beyond the current role of the OI of providing data only when supply chain actors deem it necessary. The goal is to strengthen coordination among the different actors in the supply chain, making planning more timely and conscious, to tackle climate uncertainty, improve the balance between supply and demand, and protect the economic sustainability of agricultural and industrial processing tomato production in Northern Italy».

Source: OI Pomodoro Nord