Italy: An anomalous Christmas for spinach production

The Balduzzi company is one of the leading Italian spinach producers for the fresh market. It supplies year round, cultivating about 400 hectares of spinach with a total volume of about 3,200 tons, 50% of the total produced is destined to fresh-cut processing industries, while the rest is processed at the company's factory, in different packaging for the retailer chains. 80% of the production is destined for the Italian market, while 20% is sold in Spain, Germany, Poland and Austria.

Spinach fields at the company Balduzzi.

Cesare Balduzzi, managing director of the Italian agricultural company explained "The months of November and December 2012 were abnormal as there was limited availability of product for the Christmas season, when traditionally the consumption is higher."

The decline in production, according to Balduzzi, was initially due to the heat, which anticipated the production of Puglia, and then to heavy rains that damaged the production of the western coast of Italy (Tuscany and Lazio). Some hail, that struck first in Tuscany and last in the province of Foggia, then further reduced the availability of product.

"This situation - continues Balduzzi - brought the prices of the product to high levels. Moreover, the demand was still not particularly high and slightly lower than 12 months ago. Much of the large-scale distribution has preferred to remove the product from the shelves, rather than expose product of poor quality and high prices."

Spinach in the field.

With regard to the ready to eat product, of which the Balduzzi company is a producer, volumes were higher than the year before.

The administrator explains: "This was not due to increased demand, but simply to the fact that, apparently, some manufacturers of "ready to use" product have had more difficulty in obtaining raw material to work with. Such a situation has benefited companies, like the one I represent that, being equipped with their own production and relying on strong partnerships with other companies located in Italy and Spain, have always had product available. "

Bag of spinach produced by Balduzzi.

Balduzzi ends by noting: "The months of January and February 2013 will be characterized by a slightly lower demand than that of December, although probably prices will remain supported by the lack of product, as rain and hail have damaged also planned productions for these months. "

Contacts:
Az. Agricola Balduzzi
Cesare Balduzzi
Ph.: +39 0131 857303
Fax: +39 0131 857814
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.agribalduzzi.com