Economic difficulties and high prices impact the shopping cart of Italians who have cut fruit and vegetable purchases by 11%
in quantity in the first six months of 2022 compared to last year, at the lowest since the beginning of the century with 2.6 billion of kilos in total.
This is what emerges from the analysis by Coldiretti Filiera Italia and Unaproa on household spending in the first half of the year at the summit of the National Union of Fruit, Vegetable and Citrus Fruit Producers (Unaproa) on rising costs and consumption crisis, according to data Cso Italy / Gfk Italy.
The Italians have reduced the quantities of courgettes by 16%, tomatoes by 12%, potatoes by 9%, carrots by 7% and salads by 4%, while for fruit, the three acronyms explain, the drop is 8% for oranges.
Only the fourth range is growing, such as salads in bags, whose sales rose by 7% over the same period of 2021.
A situation which, on the one hand, records the increase in retail prices, on the other the values recognized to farmers often do not even cover the production costs of crops already destroyed by hail and drought.
In fact, in addition to the damage caused by climate change, the budgets of companies are put at risk by increases of all kinds, from heating greenhouses to fuels, from raw materials to fertilizers, with expenses more than doubled, up to packaging, with increases that affect the plastic for trays, nets and envelopes (+ 70%), paper for stamps and labels (+ 35%) up to corrugated cardboard for boxes (+ 60%), the same trend of increases for wooden boxes ( + 60%), while delivery times are also lengthening.
