The olive harvest in Italy starts with the arrival of the new Made in Italy oil in 2021, for an estimated production up 15% compared to last year and of excellent quality.
This is what emerges from an analysis by Coldiretti, Ismea and Unaprol, on the occasion of the beginning of the olive harvest in Italy with the first pressing in the Terra Surti company of Elio Menta in Sortino in the Syracuse area.
According to the data, production could be around 315 million kilos (273.5 million kilos last year), on average with the statistics of the latest campaigns but with a lower than expected result.
To negatively affect the season, the drought that hit Puglia, a region that produces half of the Italian product, which will remain far from the typical standards of the charging years (200 million kg).
The possible increase in production is the result of a concrete improvement in some areas with peaks of 40%, offset downwards by other areas. Sicily, after three difficult seasons, could return above the 40 million kg threshold, while some more problems are recorded in Calabria, very far from the maximum regional production. Negative year for Tuscany and Umbria (with peaks of -50%) which suffer from uncertain climatic trends and could suffer from possible attacks by the oil fly, while among the central regions Lazio maintains almost unchanged the production of last year. Black jersey of the season in the North, Lombardy in the lead, hit by periods of frost and extreme heat that reduced production to a minimum (estimates from -60 to -80%).Numbers that make the recovery of the sector slower than expected and risk slipping Italy off the podium of world production.
