"In 60 years, because I started picking olives when I was 8, I have never seen such a catastrophic campaign in the Valle d'Itria. To exaggerate we collected the 10% of production potential, a real disaster”. The president of the Puglia millers association, Stefano Caroli (in the picture) paints a gloomy picture for olive growing that extends over territories where extra virgin olive oil has important values such as Martina Franca, Alberobello, Cisternino, Ostuni, Ceglie Massapica.
“We paid dearly – he adds – three phenomena which followed one after the other: the frosts of April, the drought summer, the fly of September. A tremendous blow for our olive trees, both the secular ones and the more recently planted ones. The result is that several oil mills have not even opened, the others opened and closed after a few days, also because buying olives from other parts was impossible, given that the situation, albeit less dramatic, was recorded throughout the region. Although everyone has stocks to a certain extent, it is to be imagined that the oil produced will run out by April/May next year.
Also the province of Bat, Apulian olive heart and the area of Foggia – Caroli highlights – they suffered greatly. Of course, it went slightly better than in the Valle d'Itria, but we are talking about a quantity that stands to do well on the 30 / 40% of standard production. We are also comparing ourselves with the other regions, we also register negative values in Calabria, Basilicata, in short, a little everywhere in the Southern Italy".
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