(ANSA) – MILAN, 18 JUL – The picking of tomato sauce in Lombardy starts one week earlier than normal due to the heat. Coldiretti announces it, indicating among the causes “intense heat and high temperatures up to 40 degrees”. “The state of the seedlings is good”, says Davide Rocca, director of the Casalasco del Pomodoro Consortium, adding that “little weather damage has been recorded in recent weeks, with the exception of the strong wind at the beginning of July”. “It will depend on temperatures and water availability – he added – but it is possible that the bulk of the product ripens in August”.
In addition to the heat and drought, the explosion in production costs due to international tensions on raw materials also weighs on farms. In fact, there are “increases on all fronts” which jeopardize the very tightness of companies: from diesel to fertilizers, from hoses to plastic films.
In Lombardy, tomatoes are grown on approximately 7,000 hectares of land, over 70% of which are located between the provinces of Mantua and Cremona. A crop that, according to Coldiretti, sets in motion a supply chain of excellence of Made in Italy, which involves “6,500 agricultural companies, about 90 processing companies and employs 10 thousand workers, for a turnover of 3.7 billion euros, of which more half achieved thanks to exports abroad, up by 5% in the first four months of 2022 despite the war in Ukraine “.
According to Coldiretti, Italy represents 15% of world production, it is the first European tomato producer ahead of Spain and Portugal and the second globally after California. (HANDLE).
Source: Ansa
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