It’s difficult to do worse than last year, but so far thewine year Casertana promises well: for the start of harvests we will have to wait until the second half of August and we will continue until late autumn. Then, for consumption, it will be necessary to wait for the bottles to arrive on the shelves based on the characteristics of the vines and the choices of the companies. On the other hand, the 2023 harvest was the poorest in terms of quantity from 1947 to today. He confirmed it himself Ministry of Agriculture which spoke of 38.3 million hectoliters throughout Italy, equal to -23.2% on 2022. And Caserta, like Campania, was certainly not spared from this dynamic determined above all by the attack of Peronospora.
«There are still some residues of Downy mildew from last year, but this year’s production will be better.” Giuseppe MiselliDirector of Coldiretti Caserta, also recalls that, after submitting the request for compensation for damages, «the wine companies are waiting to receive payments because they have used resources and work in the face of a future collection that is reduced and in some cases non-existent due to the absence of wine. According to the regional resolution, the damage quantified in Campania was 72.5 million euros. And the province of Caserta was the most affected (20 million), after that of Avellino, with 26 municipalities affected and reported in the Region’s act last November”. As has been the case in recent months, the market continued to hold. The price increases were physiological but not as decisive as feared. «The closure of public establishments during the critical phases of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the failure to sell a large number of bottles which remained in the cellars of companies. This made it possible to considerably reduce the impact of the 2023 vintage on availability and therefore on marketing, avoiding the imbalance between supply and demand, and consequently the decisive increase in prices”.
Miselli also underlines that «the agricultural entrepreneur must think more and more about the use of new technologies capable of anticipating the times and knowing that there are climatic conditions favorable to the development of pathogens. If previously there were scheduled treatments, now we need to proceed differently. To give an example of Peronospora, we talk about the “Three Tens” rule: average temperature around 10 degrees, at least 10 millimeters of rain in one or two days, and average length of young shoots of at least 10 centimetres. It means that you need to proceed with the utmost caution when these conditions are approaching. Furthermore, the European Union has established that within 20 years the use of pesticides must be reduced. It is an interesting prospect but it is then necessary to study more resistant plants and resort to innovation. I am referring to vines as well as olive trees, tomato plants and much more. Otherwise, the decline in production will progressively increase, thus eliminating the final quantities and increasing company crises.”
He is confident but with a certain caution in his statements Cesare Aveniapresident of Vitica Consortium and patron of the Il Verro winery. He speaks of a year «that for the moment is progressing without major problems. Nobody expects the exceptional year of 2022 to return immediately, but at the same time the horrible year of 2023 cannot be absorbed so quickly by the most affected vineyards. We expect yields to be higher than 12 months ago, but it is still too early for a qualitative assessment that we will be able to make from the second half of August. Now a strong heat wave has arrived: the problem always lies in sudden climate changes.” The Avenia company was very impressed. In addition to a total impact on 2023 production, among the consequences there was a “conservative” pruning. Productivity will certainly be affected in some way, resulting in lower quantitative levels while waiting for the situation to stabilize over time. I’m certainly not the only one in this situation, same story in other companies too. So there will be repercussions, in some cases greater and in others minor. But I believe we are on the right path and that it is a promising year.”
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