Italy's kiwifruit exporters could see demand in Europe and North America strengthen in the March-May period as an apparent shortage of product coming out of Chile following adverse weather conditions in the Latin American country.
Reporting that sales of Italian kiwifruit had been very much in line with expectations during the first few weeks of the new campaign, mainly as a result of strong sales in Asia and North America in particular, Gianni Amidei, managing director of leading marketer and Apo Conerpo business unit Alegra, said he expected an upturn in shipments to European and North American clients to counteract a likely dip in demand from Asia as the season progressed.
While describing sales of Italian kiwifruit on the domestic market as 'less than brilliant', he said the quality of what was shaping up to be a slightly bigger volume of fruit for the company this season remained very good.
'At a national level, overall production has remained largely stable compared with the previous year's levels, that is around 420,000 tonnes,' reported Amidei, who added that the volume of kiwifruit supplied to Alegra's marketing cooperative Agrintesa was 8 per cent up on the 2012 figure.
The start of this year's Italian harvest was delayed by the weather, which favoured the production of larger, heavier fruit. 'The quality and size profile of the kiwifruit is certainly higher than in 2012,' Amidei noted, 'particularly in Emilia-Romagna.'
Shipments to the Far East are expected to begin tailing off in the coming months, he commented.
'We're anticipating a contraction in exports to the Far East, essentially due to logistical factors. At the same time, we think the difficulties seen on the Italian market will continue, while we're sensing good prospects as far as demand and prices on the European and North American markets are concerned, especially in the final phase of the campaign.'
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