News
Southern Italy: “the harvest will start with or without an advance decision on prices”
2020 Season
With a price proposal of EUR 100 /mT for round tomatoes and EUR 110 /mT for oblong ones, manufacturers in the tomato processing sector opened the door to a price increase of around 6% compared to last year, to take into account the extraordinary nature of the current situation (Covid-19, irrigation needs, etc.). The agricultural upstream had not commented on these proposals at the time of writing this article.
The proposal was made on 22 June at the SSICA (Experimental Station of the Agri-food Industry) in Angri (province of Salerno) during a meeting between ANICAV representatives of the industrial sector and a delegation of POs (producers’ organizations) operating in the south-central region of Italy. No agreement has yet been reached.
If validated, the price levels offered would generate a differential between northern and southern Italy of 12 euro per tonne for round tomatoes, and of more than 3 euro compared to 2019, confirming yet again that raw material prices in Italy are "the highest in the world". "This difference is justified by the higher production costs in southern Italy, but also the higher costs of rental for the skips and transport from fields to factories, higher irrigation costs and prices for the rental of land, etc., and it is a gap that remains difficult to close.”
At this stage, prevailing comments point to innumerable unanswered questions and much uncertainty; for local stakeholders, "tomatoes are in the fields and the harvest will start with or without an advance decision on prices".
Source: freshplaza.it
