Sicily is squeezed. Off to the blood orange harvest

It looks encouraging the season that will begin at the end of December for the PGI Sicilian blood orange and it wasn’t a given given the major drought problems this year. “We hope that the great sacrifice made by the members of the Protection Consortium, who heroically managed to guarantee irrigation and therefore a good size and quality of the product, will be repaid – explains the president of the Protection Consortium, Gerardo Diana – but once again it is naturally the brand that is valid on the market, the PGI, a protected geographical indication that the Protection Consortium has made over the years into a successful and well-known brand throughout the world, synonymous with a healthy and sustainable product”.

Marketing will officially begin on December 27th. A real challenge is that of rationalizing the water, distributed on the systems to guarantee better size. “We are always optimistic for what the new year will be because now our supporters, consumers, by choosing our oranges, know not only that they have the highest quality, but above all that the product is synonymous with maximum sustainability”, continues Diana.

In the balance of the past campaign a large quantity of product, however with sizes questioned by an unfavorable climate. The companies belonging to the Consortium have marketed almost 22 thousand tons of fresh product and around 7 thousand for industry, for a total approaching 30 thousand tonnes.

“Important numbers which however arrived in a period in which the closure of the Suez Canal on the one hand, the importation of foreign products on the other, did not facilitate the profitability of our companies – concludes Gerardo Diana – and this is what politics must being able to watch it in time in order to facilitate quality Italian productions such as our PGI”.

A reality that involves over 30 municipalities in Eastern Sicily and which sees, in addition to the thousands of employees in the sector, around 500 associated producers for a total of approximately 6500 hectares certified with the PGI, of which 800 are organic. There are three market intermediaries and over 70 associated packaging centres, more than 300 labels are authorized to use the protected PGI designation as an ingredient in processed, processed and compound products published in a consortium register.