The autumn-winter vegetable season has passed its half-way mark in the Bari province. Chard, chicory, puntarellas, celery, fennel, broccoli, cauliflowers, Roman cauliflowers and cabbage are still available and asparagus processing started a few days ago.
"The fluctuating weather of this season had various effects over the months - in October and November, heavy rains affected brassicas, especially when it came to broccoli, as we had to throw away or not even harvest a lot of produce because it was unsaleable," explains Cosimo Leggiero, sales manager for Miss Freschezza.
"Things improved towards Christmas and the snow and low temperatures in early January pushed consumption. In addition, supplies dropped slightly."
The constant demand and limited supply meant all products did well until mid-February. "Then, as temperatures were above average, prices dropped a little."
Fennel, parsley and celery did rather well in general. "Compared to the last season, the most important thing was that there was no way to accumulate produce, and we actually finished the stocks of some produce earlier than expected. Demand was constant from all distribution channels and even abroad, although we did expect a little more from France and Germany. The retail channel and general markets performed rather well, especially since there was less produce available."
"Demand for celery, cabbage, fennel and parsley has been excellent over the past few days, probably also because Easter is coming up. The cauliflower and broccoli situation is also picking up."
The spring-summer season is coming up. "We have already started with asparagus, but volumes are still low. They should perform well until Easter, as temperatures are still low especially at nighttime. The sowing of new potatoes is delayed, while zucchini, barattieres and carosellis are in line with the previous campaigns."
After the excellent blossoming of early stone fruit, we hope there will be no frost. "In this case, the season could be a little early."
Contacts:
Ortofrutticola Egnathia
C.da Losciale 111
70043 Monopoli (BA)
Tel./Fax: (+39) 080 801140
Website: www.missfreschezza.it