The information website by, for and about
the tomato processing industry globally

Italy: price agreement reached on 7 March

11/04/2017

François-Xavier Branthôme
Italy,
European Union
${printContents} `); printWindow.document.close(); printWindow.focus(); printWindow.print(); printWindow.close(); }); });

Italy: price agreement reached on 7 March

According to the Italian press, confirmed by professional sources, an agreement was reached on Tuesday 7 March 2017, on the reference price for fresh tomato in northern Italy for the coming crop.

The agreement for processing tomatoes was set at EUR 79.75 /mT (+1 euro per mT for transport), 6% lower than the official reference level agreed last year (EUR 85.2 /mT) and 4% lower than the actual average price paid to growers (EUR 82.95 /mT) in 2016 (before grading). According to Luca Artioli, head of industrial crops for Apo-Conerpo, “the price was lowered to align it with other leading production areas: 72 euro in Andalusia, 74 in Portugal, about 76 US dollars (approximately EUR 72 /mT) in California”.
Last week, an agreement was reached by private processors and POs regarding the quantities of tomatoes that will be contracted, amounting to 1.7 million metric tonnes, slightly less than in 2016. The overall target for the northern Italian production was set between 2.4 and 2.5 million tonnes (against 2.35-2.55 million mT last year), with 800 000 mT planned for the cooperative system.
Above the threshold of 1.7 million tonnes, growers of the POs responsible for exceeding the level will be charged a penalty of 20 euros per tonne, whereas during the 2016 campaign, it was more generally all growers and the entire industry of northern Italy, including cooperatives, that were charged this penalty. In order to define the quantity limits allocated to each PO, the agreement includes a provisional average yield between 72 and 75 mT/ha. The use of income generated by penalties remains to be determined but, according to Bruna Saviotti, who coordinates the Territorial Committee for the Northern Basin of the ANICAV, these potential resources could be partially or totally affected to research and development projects for the Northern District.
 
Grading parameters should remain unchanged from last season.
This agreement includes a specific price level for organic production.

In a press release on 10 March, Bruna Saviotti also stated that this “agreement is very positive, given the difficulties of the current situation on the commercial level, and will enable companies to better face competition from the main processing countries within Europe, as they have reached agreements for prices that are lower than ours.”
According to Ms. Saviotti, the agreement consolidates the role of the interbranch organization in the processing tomato sector, particularly in view of the fact that it occurred at the same time as the State-Region Conference approved the project for the formal acknowledgement of northern Italy’s tomato industry IO as the only interbranch organization accredited to operate in this region. In the very near future, this acknowledgement will be approved by the Ministry of Agriculture, an important achievement that should be credited to the careful and effective leadership role of President Rabboni.