Due to the drought, but also the frosts, 1/3 of the fodder to feed the animals in the stables has so far gone up in Puglia, with the difficulty of obtaining broad beans, clover and fodder even from neighboring regions but the production of corn has also halved in Italy in the last 20 years due to production costs, climate changes and imports from abroad which expose farmers to the consequences of international tensions. This is reported by Coldiretti Puglia, with the risk of a further increase in the cost of feed, which has already skyrocketed due to the rise in prices of the main raw materials also due to the current international scenario with farmers who must guarantee food supplies for the animals.
We must stop the bleeding of stables in Puglia, which went from 2,311 in December 2019 to 1,978 in June 2023, a loss of 333 farms caused by the increase in production and management costs, which no longer corresponds to a fair remuneration of the price of milk at the stable, which cannot go below the production costs calculated by Ismea, when in the gap between production and consumption there are margins to be recovered to guarantee a fair and honest price that takes into account the farmers’ costs and the necessary quality to be guaranteed to consumers.
The stability of the dairy sector must be guaranteed, which has an importance for the regional economy but also a social and environmental relevance – insists Coldiretti Puglia – because when a stable closes an entire system made up of animals and meadows for fodder is lost , of typical cheeses and above all of people committed to fighting, often for entire generations, the depopulation and degradation of territories, especially in disadvantaged areas.
In Puglia there is a heritage of cheeses unique in the world in danger – reports the regional Coldiretti – where Fattoria Puglia ensures a decisive safeguard of a territory where maintenance is ensured precisely by the breeding activity, with the silent work of cleaning and of soil compaction carried out by animals and a Made in Italy agri-food heritage which in Puglia boasts 4 DOP cheeses, the Burrata di Andria IGP and 17 specialties recognized as traditional by the MIPAAF, with specialties coming from Puglia such as the Canestrato Leccese, the Caciocavallo podolico Dauno, the Caciocavallo della Murgia.
Faced with these scenarios which penalize national self-supply, we must act on two fronts: on the one hand, innovation with new genetic improvement technologies to recover production not only in terms of sustainability but also in quantitative terms and on the other supply chain contracts, fundamental for increasing the level of aggregation of the offer, characterizing and qualitatively enhancing the national product – concludes Coldiretti – because defending the breeding supply chain means supporting a system made up of animals, the environment and above all people committed to fighting depopulation and degradation often for entire generations, even in difficult areas.
