This was announced Coldiretti Puglia in a recent press release, underlining that for these reasons the right remuneration must be recognized for a product that proves to be of high quality.
Coldiretti Puglia with the CREATEa cereal company from the Granary of Italy, has drawn up the first assessment of the cereal campaign, saved at the last minute by drought and frost.
“Production is decreasing just when in Puglia growing wheat has cost farmers up to 300 euros more per hectare, with major problems caused by drought, but also by frosts. But the quality is excellent, and we will not accept any downward policy of the prices of wheat made in Italy”, he explained Mario de Matteopresident of Coldiretti Foggia.
According to de Matteo’s point of view, the drain on the Granary of Italy also makes it necessary to “interventions to help companies that have lost production and income, also compared to now unsustainable price increases, starting from the cereal sector which represents one of the symbols of the difficult situation faced by regional agriculture.
The cutting of harvests caused by the severe and persistent drought, with the increase in costs, in some areas of the provinces of Bari and Foggia – underlines Coldiretti Puglia – risks increasing dependence on foreign countries for agri-food supplies with Italy already imports 64% of the wheat for bread, 44% of that needed for pasta, but also 16% of the milk consumed, 49% of the beef and 38% of the pork, without forgetting that with the harvests national corn and soybeans, fundamental for animal feed, cover respectively just 53% and 27% of Italian needs according to the analysis of the Divulga Study Center.
Puglia is the main Italian producer of durum wheat, with 360,000 hectares cultivated and 10 million quintals produced on average per year. The demand for 100% Made in Italy wheat clashes with years of inattention and abandonment which in the last decade – reports Coldiretti Puglia – have led to the disappearance of 1 field in 5 with the loss of almost half a million hectares of cultivated land, with effects disruptive on the economy, employment and the environment, from unfair competition from imports from abroad, especially from areas of the planet that do not respect the same food and environmental safety rules in force in Puglia and Italy.
The best varieties of durum wheat selected – insists Coldiretti Puglia – from Emilio Lepido to Furio Camillo, from Marco Aurelio to Massimo Meridio up to Panoramix and Maiorca wheat, are cultivated by farmers in the Apulian territory which produces more than 1/4 of all the Italian durum wheat.
CEREAL PRODUCTION PUGLIA
Years
2021
2022
2023
harvested production – quintals
harvested production – quintals
harvested production – quintals
Type of cultivation
Common wheat
225,000
213,000
189,000
durum wheat
9,318,000
6,877,000
7,974,000
barley
538,300
354,730
510,400
oats
550,655
483.175
503,600
corn
51,000
44,250
51,400
sorghum
3,800
3,800
3,600
*Elaboration by Coldiretti Puglia based on Istat data source
