"Nowadays, many distribution chains are underselling produce rather than promoting it, and producers are the ones who pay the price," explains Francesco Donati, Presidentt of Confagricoltura.
"Promoting a product means making sure people get to know about it. But it seems to me the terms promotion and underselling have been conflated. And, in years like this where prices aren't satisfactory, this confusion is even more evident. In addition, another aspect that must be taken into consideration is the fact that agriculture is the only sector where only one side decides about 'promotion'. Producers just don't count."
Stone fruit hasn't been doing well this year. Apricots are going through a crisis because volumes were abundant thanks to the favourable climate. The same goes for plums. Despite the average production, peaches and nectarines are sold at low prices. In order to try and change this situation in the medium term, supermarkets will try to divide sweet from acidic peaches and nectarines.
"Consumers may be avoiding these products also because they are never certain of what they buy. Sometimes fruit tastes good and the next day it may taste totally different. We will test this new strategy and see if things change."
Donati also made a proposal for suppliers to work together, but data should also be organised better. Some regions have reliable data, while others don't. The data concerning Emilia Romagna, for example, are rather worrying: between 1994 and 2016, the regional cultivated land dropped by 43% from 100 thousand hectares to 57,500. Peaches lost 62% of the orchards and nectarines lost 41%.
