Fruit and vegetables

Apple harvest started: production in line with 2023

Campaign kicks off also in Trentino Alto Adige, which represents two thirds of the national production capacity. Prognosfruit: estimates down 1%.

23 August 2024

La campagna di raccolta delle mele 2024 sarà in linea con la produzione dell’anno precedente

3' min read

The apple-harvesting season has also begun in Val di Non and Val di Sole, with Trentino Alto Adige accounting for around two-thirds of national production, even though this year's production will be down more than elsewhere due to adverse weather conditions.

According to estimates by Prognosfruit, Italy is expected to record a total production of around 2.16 million tonnes of apples this year, a date substantially in line with the 2023 figure (-1%).
Italy is the second largest European apple producer, behind Poland and ahead of France and Germany, in an EU where 10.2 billion kilos of apples will be produced this year, down by around 11% compared to last season.

Negative estimates also forTrentino (-7%) and Alto Adige (-9%), which are suffering the effects of the spring frost. But the quality of the fruit will be high, according to initial surveys.
Instead, it will be better in Piedmont, which is the second region for production, with an 8% increase in the harvest. Increases also in Veneto (+33% over last year, which was ravaged by frost and hail) and Emilia Romagna (+15% compared to a 2023 marked by flooding).

Three of the most popular apples on the tables, the harvests - underlines the Coldiretti - of Golden Delicious (-10%) and Gala (-11%) are expected to fall. Organic apples are also down (-6%), representing 7% of the total national harvest.

"In order to ensure more consistent harvests for the benefit of consumers in Italy and around the world who appreciate domestic apples," Coldiretti comments, "it is necessary to continue investingin active and passive defence systems against climate change and alien insects. Italy boasts a significant heritage of biodiversity as far as apple varieties are concerned, thanks also to the six designations of origin recognised by the EU: Mela Val di Non Dop, Mela Alto Adige Igp, Mela del Trentino Igp, Melannurca Campana Igp, Mela Valtellina Igp, Mela Rossa Cuneo Igp. A heritage that can also be discovered by purchasing directly from the producer at the farm or in the Campagna Amica markets'.

Harvesting started with the earliest varieties, such as SweeTango and Gala, but operations will continue in September with Renetta, Dolcevita and Golden and in October will finish with Morgana and Fuji.
According to the statistics of the Trento Province Employment Agency, in 2023 more than 11 thousand foreign workers were hired in agriculture in Val di Non (just under 85% of the total). In Val di Sole, on the other hand, more than 500 foreign workers were hired (about 60% of the total). In more than a fifth of cases they were female workers, while the most represented countries were Romania, Senegal, Poland and Morocco.

"The weeks of the harvest represent a key moment for our territory: it is in this period, in fact, that the immediate future of the economy of a valley with a strong vocation for apple cultivation is decided, an activity that, in our consortium alone, involves about 4,000 families of producer members," observes Ernesto Seppi, president of Melinda and Apot (the co-op that associates fruit growers in Trentino).

In recent weeks," a note informs, "the Consortium is organising a number of meetings to share good practices on safety on the road and in the field, and to safeguard the regularity of employment relationships. These courses are being organised in collaboration with the Labour Service of the Province of Trento, the Uopsal of the Provincial Health Services Agency and the Carabinieri Corps.

Emiliano SgambatoResponsabile Food24
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