An earthquake which struck the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna in the early hours of Sunday, 20 May, has reportedly caused 'considerable damage' to warehouses and production belonging to agricultural cooperatives based in the area.
Maurizio Gardini, president of the Italian producers' union Fedagri-Confcooperative and of the Confcooperative Emilia-Romagna, said that while it was too early to assess the full extent of the damage, producers and exporters had certainly been affected.
'The area affected by the earthquake is dominated by an industry of many small and medium-sized companies working largely in the agricultural sector,' he commented.
The 6.0-magnitude quake, the strongest to have hit Italy in three years, struck Emilia Romagna at 04:04 local time and was felt in the nearby regions of Lombardy and Veneto.
The epicentre was beneath the plains near Modena in the Po River Valley, a major centre of production for cherries, peaches and nectarines.
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