Fruit juices and preserves, industry on alert for endangered supplies and record prices

Falling production and yields and rising prices are alarming the fruit and vegetable processing industry, which produces juices and preserves with a foreign turnover of more than 1.5 billion, rising by 11.3% in 2024. A primacy of Made in Italy at risk, in a vicious circle that starts from the production world upstream of the chain, which is confronted with ever-increasing costs, increasingly stringent regulations on the use of plant protection products in the face of the new diseases that plague the sector, also favoured by the climate crisis, which in the meantime is severely testing the resilience of many productions. Thus, in perspective, supplies, albeit at increasingly higher costs, are no longer guaranteed. For the time being, the only solution in the face of the 'alien insects' brought by globalisation and the climate crisis are the orchard covers that can be seen walking around the Italian countryside.

Despite a drop in the volumes produced, the overall economic value of the vegetable products sector (jams, fruit preserves and similar, IV range fruit and vegetable products, fruit and vegetable juices and nectars, vegetable preserves) grew last year by 0.8%, from 4.78 to 4.82 billion, thanks to a dynamic that reflects a market transformation with more moderate but higher value-added consumption.

In the sector the incidence of raw material costs is as high as 70%, a high figure that over time has led to increasingly efficient processing. Upstream price increases now affect all sectors, but especially fruit and vegetables. Cherries, sour cherries and similar products are almost unobtainable, with prices skyrocketing, apricots have doubled, and even peaches, usually associated with surpluses and offers, cost more this year.

"There is an underlying structural problem, between bureaucracy and phytosanitary emergencies, which is exacerbated by the climate crisis,' explains Matthias Gasser, president of the vegetable preserves group of the Italian Food Union and vice-president of Profel, the association of EU processors. 'With the guidelines of the last CAP we have entered a blind alley, the environmental objectives are acceptable but do not take into account the economic situation and the climate crisis. There is a policy to increase consumption because they are healthy products, but if production is reduced it is a problem. On top of the immediate price problem there is the difficulty of finding labour. Climate change, limitations on pesticides and rising costs are discouraging production. The frosts that have also affected production in Eastern Europe and Turkey this year have always been there, but never to such a great extent and in combination with an already precarious market situation. Climate change means milder winters that leave insects and pests on the plants, while plant protection products are increasingly expensive, harder to obtain or are banned by Brussels. A cross-cutting problem even in virtuous cases like apples'.

Another issue is that of generational turnover, in an increasingly high risk sector with respect to profitability. The agricultural policy, with a dedicated Common Market Organisation (CMO), helps but treats the effect rather than the cause. "The situation we are living is different from the past, apart from an increase in the cost of fruit we have a problem of availability, so we have to think involving the entire value chain: producers, processors and distributors," Gasser continues, "in order not to lose a production that is an excellence of Made in Italy from the point of view of efficiency, sustainability and quality.