The Coronavirus emergency begins to make the first repercussions felt on the (downward) price of food
It is not only the climate this year that is upsetting the fruit and vegetable market (the first fruits arrived a month early, after the abnormal winter, with boiling temperatures and without significant rainfall). The Coronavirus emergency, with all the rules established to try to contain the epidemic, also begins to make the first – and already heavy – repercussions on the food trade feel. Restaurants, bars and restaurants have had to close its doors, and many of the seasonal products that were used in large quantities by restaurants have remained unsold and are now offered at really low prices.
Unsold products
An example is the fish: Milanese restaurateurs, the main buyers on the Italian market, are not buying it. But, at the same time, fishmongers cannot cancel contracts with fishing vessels, because they would also risk compromising their future agreements. The fish, therefore, is currently on sale at a decidedly affordable price.
A similar argument is also valid for strawberries which, normally, are purchased from patisseries and restaurants: these days you can buy them for around 3 euros per kilo, compared to 5 or 6 last week. Also the asparagus, in this season, they usually tempt restaurateurs, who willingly offer them on the menu: more than half of the production is absorbed by the locals. This year will not happen: now that the harvest in Puglia and Maremma has come to life, a huge amount of product is available, sold at very minimal prices.
The lack of manpower
Coldiretti also reports another problem due to Coronavirus: the lack of manpower for the new crops, anticipated due to the effect of the hot winter. «With i traffic restrictions between countries more than a quarter of made in Italy food is at risk, which is collected in the countryside by foreign hands with 370 thousand regular workers who come from abroad every year, especially from Eastern Europe, such as Romania, Albania, Bulgaria and Poland. There are many "agricultural districts" in the north where immigrant workers represent a well integrated component in the economic and social fabric as in the case of the collection of strawberries and asparagus in the Veronese area, apples in Trentino, fruit in Emilia Romagna, grapes, apples, pears and kiwis in Piedmont, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage and fennel in Puglia .
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