“After fourteen years, finally, the orange soda producer industry it remunerates the agri-food supply chain of orange juice made in Calabria”. This is what the regional councilor of the League announced in a note Roberto Molinaro.
“The price per kilo of oranges it was 5/7 cents of euros, completely insufficient to cover the costs of production and harvesting and which fueled an intolerable chain of exploitation which affected workers, farmers and processors attentive to respecting the rules. Today it is between 35/40 cents of euros, almost seven times more” he explains. “A certainly long journey which saw farmers as protagonists and orange squeezing factories”.
“At the time there was almost a demonization of this specific sector and the Rosarno revolt in some way certified it! The affair had a considerable outcry across the country and even internationally and since then a short circuit was created which generated the law to combat gangmastering, the restructuring of producers’ organizations” and the modification of the law “which raised the minimum percentage of juice in soft drinks from 12% to 20% to label them as orange sodas”.
“Was a regenerative period of legality for Calabria and Italy, which combined social and economic justice identified with the claim Let’s not leave Rosarno alone… let’s cultivate the same interests. It has been widely demonstrated that it wasn’t just a question of subsidies to farmers but a production system exploited by multinationals of the drinks that mortified the citrus growers” he continues.
“The conditions of a more transparent market urge the activation of irrigation of the over 1000 (one thousand) hectares under the Metramo Dam and a Supply Chain Contract 100% Calabrian using the resources provided for by law 101/2021 made available by Masaf for recover abandoned land and recover the transformation activity” he concludes. “It must be implemented in parallel technical support (phytosanitary service, professional training and technical assistance with particular attention to precision agriculture) to support this supply chain production of 100% Italian food. No one can leave the Rosarno-Gioia Tauro plain alone with these opportunities for development and real work.”
