GEN peaches credit NaJina McEnany

Photo: NaJina McEnany

Italy’s fresh produce exporters are struggling more than ever to achieve sustainable prices and returns from summer fruit, especially peaches and nectarines.

That’s the view of Simone Spreafico of Italian importer-exporter Spreafico, who told Italiafruit News that the category had reached a nadir this season under pressure from falling prices, oversupply and poor demand.

“We’ve reached the bottom,” he commented. “There is no margin for producers or packers, private companies or co-operatives. In fact, they’re losing. If it continues like this, I don’t know how anyone can survive: there’s a risk we’re at the end of the line.”

Spreafico added: “Those operating upstream in the supply are in serious difficulty. The crisis is affecting everyone and prices are inadequate.

“It’s not easy to understand how to find a solution to a situation that risks causing irreparable damage: even if Emilia-Romagna, among the most productive regions for peaches, were significantly to reduce its production, probably the picture wouldn’t change that much.”

While summer fruit remains a much smaller part of Spreafico’s business compared with autumn-winter items like pears and kiwifruit, it does nevertheless market a significant volume of peaches and nectarines (8,000-9,000 tonnes), plums (4,000 tonnes) and apricots (1,000 tonnes) each year.

“It’s distressing to witness this debacle happening to the Italian industry,” Spreafico concluded. “It would be good if we could satisfy all of the producers, who once again are at the mercy of an ungenerous market. Unfortunately, the conditions and prospects are not rosy.”