Tradition always dictates the Easter menu, but this year there will be less lamb meat, with consumption falling by 20% due to rising prices and product shortages.
This is due to the transhumance crisis, a typical activity of the Apennine regions and islands, which led to a 25% cut in the births of dairy lambs planned for this period, going from 350 thousand in the pre-pandemic period to 250 thousand today.
This was reported by Cia-Agricoltori Italiani, with data confirmed by the telematic Commodity Exchange, according to which wholesale prices are increasing by 15% for lamb meat, also supported by the usual growth in demand recorded in the weeks preceding Easter .
Foreign product is also decreasing this year, estimated at 50% of the total, coming mostly from Eastern Europe, Spain and Greece.
Many of these foreign types are cheaper, but of lower quality, because the lambs are often raised in stables and weaned on artisanal milk.
Instead, the doves purchased by 69% of Italians will always dominate the tables, beating the chocolate eggs chosen by 63%, according to a survey by Coldiretti/Ixè.
And then savory and sweet pies, with the Neapolitan pastiera which, according to Cna Agrioalimentare, becomes a national dessert, also leading the way for the casatiello and Tortano, flanked by regional cheese pizzas and the Ligurian Torta Pasqualina with artichokes.
There is also a record for the consumption of chicken eggs, 6 per person this week, for a value of 130 million euros, according to Unaitalia, with wholesale prices down 25% compared to last year.
As for flour, among the raw materials used for the preparation of Easter dishes and desserts, there were drops of 8%, but not for butter, which increased by almost 25%.
Critical scenario for cocoa with prices more than tripled.
Consumption is also on the rise for fish, because Lent and Easter, after the Christmas holidays and summer holidays, are the peak period of the year.
Fedagripesca-Confcooperative calculates a surge of 30%, with peaks of 50% next weekend, with prices in line with the same period last year.
Worth noting are the cheap sole in the Adriatic.
Few, however, will be Italian clams among the popular dishes at Easter and Easter Monday, especially in seaside places due once again to the blue crab.
According to Fedagripesca, 8 out of 10 of those on the market will be imported from the Pacific, from the coasts of Vietnam, Taiwan and southern China,
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