Tomato preserves: Italia remains leader, but loses 8% in exports
Giovanni De Angelis, director general of Anicav: our tomatoes are strongly threatened by international competition that relies exclusively on price leverage'
in 2025 exports of all tomato by-products - from peeled tomatoes to pulps and cherry tomatoes - will decline in volume and value by 2% and 8% respectively compared to 2024. This was announced by Anicav (the National Association of Vegetable Food Preserves Manufacturers), on the occasion of the third edition of the National Made in Italy Day. Despite the turbulence, Italia still maintains global leadership in exports of these products.
We are talking about more than 2.2 million tonnes of canned goods with a total value of EUR 2.8 billion, of which the majority, more than 64%, are peeled tomatoes, pulp and cherry tomatoes, high value-added products that were certainly the most affected by the US tariffs (-7.1% in value).
Conflicts, US protectionist policies, unfair competition from countries that do not meet quality, safety and sustainability standards and continue to put low-cost products on the market are - according to Anicav president Marco Serafini - the main causes of the sector's difficulties.
Despite the deficits, Europe remains the main outlet market (60% of value), with Germany, the UK and France leading the way. USA is the first market for non-European exports, with a 7.5% share. Japan is the sixth largest destination market in the world for red canned goods and the second after the USA, if we consider only non-European countries.
"Our tomato, which has always been an emblem of Made in Italy and our culinary tradition appreciated all over the world, is strongly threatened by international competition that relies exclusively on price leverage," comments Giovanni De Angelis, Anicav director general. "The gap between the price of our products and those of our competitors is tending to widen more and more, jeopardising important market shares conquered over the years by our entrepreneurs". De Angelis continues: "We absolutely cannot afford to lose further ground in terms of competitiveness, and for this we need cohesion and dialogue between all the players in the supply chain, especially in the run-up to a campaign that promises to be extremely complex, in particular due to the enormous unknown factor of energy costs that could push up production costs once again.
