The citrus fruit campaign did not go well for the COPAM consortium. President Rocco Scarpari explained that "the campaign started in early September 2015 but there were many problems because, in our area, we had to deal with a 40% drop in volumes."
For what concerns clementines, there were problems caused by Mount Etna's volcanic ashes. "Though we must say that, while at the beginning the produce was indeed damaged, after a while customers abroad started complaining even if quality was fine, so we stopped exporting and focused on the domestic market. Now the season is over, but for the future we are hoping to extend the production period with early and late varieties."
"Orange sales were slow on the foreign markets, while lemons did better partially thanks to the frost that hit Argentina and affected its production."
"At the moment, oranges are sold at around €0.60/kg. We will continue with the Navel variety until March and then with the Valencia until July."
Citrus fruit consumption is directly proportional to dropping temperatures, so it is not a surprise that with such mild weather people tend to eat less of it.
The COPAM PO owns 3,600 hectares of citrus groves divided among 48 cooperatives and has 3,000 members. The main foreign destinations are Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Austria, Dubai and New York. The PO is a member of Italia Ortofrutta-Unione Nazionale.
Both the citrus fruit and the vegetables produced by the PO are available in the "organic version." "They are very popular in Germany and Austria but not so much in Eastern European countries."
For what concerns kiwis, Scarpari explains that "the market was saturated by the abundant harvesting in all producer countries. Nonetheless, we are looking to increase our production, expand our stocking capacity and introduce new processing machinery."
Products destined to the processing industry
"Demand for tangerine essential oils is increasing and producers get paid between €0.20 and €0.38/kg. Organic citrus fruit growers get even more than that. In addition, bergamot is also popular - we have contracts with two of the leading Italian companies that sell it worldwide."
The president stresses that COPAM also makes concentrated orange and tangerine juice (for the domestic and German markets) and processes orange peels for the candied fruit industry (exported to the Netherlands)."
