Italian stone fruit season officially started

stone fruit FreshPlaza has interviewed Diego De Lucca - export manager of theItalian company Alegra (business unit of the large fresh producegroup Apo Conerpo) - in order to ask him about his opinion on thestart of the Italian stone fruit season. Central and Southern Italy regions "Peaches harvest - Diego says - has started on 22-23 May in theregions of Central and Southern Italy. Last year, the peach seasonwas particularly precocious (3-4 days before the average season)". "Starting from week 22th and week 23th, we expect that all othermain producing areas of Central and Southern Italy will startharvesting precocious peaches, as the ripening should be favored bythe high temperatures of the last days". "Small volumes of the first precocious nectarines will be harvestedin Southern Italy too, starting from 2-3 June. Volumes are expectedto increase in the following two weeks". "Harvest season for peaches in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna(the main stone fruit producing region in Italy) will start a fewdays earlier than usual, but with 6-7 days of delay in comparisonwith the 2007 season, which was exceptionally precocious". "We forecast - Diego says - that peach and nectarine volumes willbe normal in Southern Italy, but smaller in Northern Italy(Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont and Veneto regions), due to unfavorableclimatic conditions at the end of March / beginning of April". "Peach sales started rather quickly, also thanks to a lower qualityand a shorter shelf-life of the competing Spanish product, whichhas suffered from unfavorable weather conditions in May. Europeantemperatures and consumption levels in the following weeks will bethe main factors to determine peach and nectarine prices". Main markets for the Italian exports are: Germany, Russia,Scandinavian countries and Austria. Starting this week, exports tothe UK are scheduled as well". "In collaboration with Emilia-Romagna's regional authorities andwith Italian CSO (Centrum for Fresh Produce Services) - Diegoexplains - we will start some promotional activities under the "Mr.Fruitness" brand. "Mr. Fruitness" is a super-hero who promotesfruit consumption amongst European children. During the followingmonths, we hope this initiative will lead to a fruit consumptionincrease in Italy too".