AGRICULTURE. Agriculture pays the same mechanisms as finance in the field: too much production? Quotes down. Poor product? High prices.
In the end, however, whether you gain or lose depends on a number of factors, including the climate that is beyond human control, such as to make everything a gamble every year. This also applies to the hazelnut, a crop that has now become widespread on the hills, for example in the province it exceeds 3,200 hectares.
But this year, as confirmed by the nurserymen who have not made great deals, the boom seems to have stopped: “You don’t see any new plants wandering around the countryside.” Accomplice was a complicated 2020 not only from the pandemic. «Among the negative inheritances there was the reduction in the qualitative level of the hazelnuts due to the percentage of“ spoiled ”present in the various batches – says Alberto Pansecchi, Coldiretti’s head of hazelnut -. The research carried out by various university faculties and by Crea (the Council for Research in Agriculture) in Rome have highlighted the presence of pathogens that will be increasingly investigated, because the reduction in the value of our hazelnut compared to Italian competitors is attributed to this problem. and international “.
Last year the prices fluctuated around 300 euros per quintal, compared to over 450 the year before. How will it go this year? “Certainly the surplus of 2020 will not be repeated, which had productions per hectare from 20 to 50 quintals, nor the consequent small sizes that characterized the hazelnuts in the last campaign – continues Pansecchi -. The quantities of last year will hardly be reached, but hazelnuts will certainly have higher sizes and therefore greater market outlets ».
In the province, the rainy weather between January and February did not help, however late flowering may not be a bad thing.
“It is too early to guess how a vintage just beginning will go – says Carlo Ricagni, in the board of directors of the Agrion Foundation, which manages the experimental center in Carpeneto and in turn is a grower of organic hazelnuts – the challenge is more than anything else in the avoid molds that compromise the final product and induce industries to pay less for it. Ripe hazelnuts should be left on the ground as little as possible, so sometimes you have to replicate the harvest, and they should be dried as soon as possible: even from the point of view of dryers, the organization of the supply chain is often lacking in the province ».
So to continue or not to plant hazelnut groves? In Coldiretti they are optimistic: “Once the Covid emergency has been overcome, the demand for Piedmontese hazelnuts will return to being high and certainly higher than what is now the ability to satisfy the demands of the industry”, say president and director, Mauro Bianco and Roberto Rampazzo, citing the 13,000 quintals of the provinces of Alessandria and Asti ended up in Novi-Elah-Dufour.
The director of Confagricoltura, Cristina Bagnasco, is a little in contrast to the hypothetical slowdown in horticulture: “I do not think there has been a significant slowdown in the planting of the” astoni “(the young plant; ed) and in any case it does not derive from trend of last season: hazelnut is a long-term planned crop, the fruits of which are harvested after about 6-7 years.
Rather, there is a progressive widening of the areas: if before we aimed at the hill, now we are starting to see hazelnut groves also in the plains and cultivation is no longer just an integration to classic crops such as vines or corn, it is specializing and this it requires more investments and organization ».