A Victory for legality: The Orange Juice supply chain in Calabria reaches fair prices

After 14 years of exploitation, the price of oranges in Calabria is close to 40 cents per kilo, guaranteeing a sustainable future for local agriculture.

Finally, after 14 years, the orange producing industry in Calabria adequately remunerates the orange juice agri-food chain. In the past, the average price of oranges in Calabria was 5-7 euro cents per kilo, a figure completely insufficient to cover the costs of production and harvesting. This situation fueled an intolerable chain of exploitation that affected workers, farmers and even processors who respected the rules. Today, the price is between 30 and 40 euro cents, almost seven times higher.

The long path of change has seen farmers and orange pressing plants as protagonists. Regional councilor Pietro Molinaro, president of the anti-‘Ndrangheta council commission, underlined how this period was a regeneration for legality in Calabria and in the rest of Italy. He recalled the demonization that afflicted this sector, which culminated in the Rosarno revolt of 7 January 2010, an event that had great national and international outcry, also sanctioned by a famous article in the Economist.

Since then, a short circuit has been created which has led to the law to combat gangmastering (n. 199 of 2016), the restructuring of producer organizations and the modification of beverage regulations, raising the minimum percentage of juice in drinks from 12 % to 20% to be able to label them as orange drinks. Pietro Molinaro highlighted how this was a period of regeneration of legality, combining social and economic justice, summarized in the claim “Let’s not leave Rosarno alone, let’s cultivate the same interests.”