Industrial tomatoes: Italy (re)overtakes China, but 2025 campaign underestimated
The year 2025 ended with a production of 5.8 million tonnes of tomatoes, a slight increase over 2024, but about 10% less than had been planned. Italy second only to the United States
Despite a production that was slightly below expectations, Italy overtook China and once again became the second largest processor of processing tomatoes, after the United States. The fault (and credit) of the weather conditions, which on the western front brought quality yields to the top, while in China it drastically reduced the quantities destined for the processing market to 4.9 million tonnes: less than half of the previous year's harvest, decimated by the torrential rains that hit the production districts.
In Italy, with 78,695 hectares under cultivation, the 2025 processing year closed with a production of 5.8 million tonnes of tomatoes, a slight increase compared to 2024, but still lower (approximately -10%) than had been planned.
The shift in the ripening times of raw materials has led to a lengthening of the processing periods," says Marco Serafini, president of Anicav. "Companies, particularly in the Centre-South, have never been able to work at full capacity with a significant loss of economies of scale. In addition, the increases in the price paid for tomatoes, which remains the highest in the world, have created distorting situations in the market, seriously risking putting the sector in crisis," he concludes.
Added to this are the difficulties related to the international economic situation: 'The sector is being put to the test by the often not simple situations of the outlet markets and the US tariff policies,' says Giovanni De Angelis, Anicav's general manager.
Going into the details of the campaign, in the Centre South 2.71 million tonnes were processed (-5.3% compared to 2024), while in the North Basin the final processed amounted to 3.12 million tonnes (+27.6% compared to last year).
