During the summer period, peaches and nectarines are the undisputed queens of the fruit and vegetable department, as confirmed by the record in terms of value impact for the category – around 10% in the Iper+Super channel between June and August – on a par with tomatoes, and this despite the loss of 13 points in volume in the consumer market as a whole, between 2019 and 2023. The numbers add up thanks to the increase in average selling prices of 50%, again in the last five years, where the discount stands out thanks to a performance above average by a further 10 points.
In any case, the numbers do not add up at a production level, given that Italy has lost 15 thousand hectares in a decade, equal to 22% of the total surfaces. The analyzes of Agroter’s Fruit and Vegetable Monitor, for the monthly column “the Category of the month”, therefore show a complex situation which we will delve into in the following paragraphs.
Production: hemorrhage of hectares in Northern Italy
The crisis in peach cultivation has been talked about for several years – without ever finding a solution – and the data relating to the evolution of the surfaces in Italy from 2014 to 2023 certify this thesis: from just over 70 thousand hectares to less than 55 thousand hectares. A negative balance of 15 thousand hectares which, as mentioned, corresponds to 22% of the total. A particularly pronounced decrease in Northern Italy, starting from Emilia Romagna, which alone lost almost 8 thousand hectares, equal to half of its production potential. Same trend for Veneto and Piedmont.
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