"The drupaceous fruit campaign in the areas of central Sicily is not encouraging," said Dario Brucculeri, an agricultural entrepreneur from Castrofilippo (AG), who also added: “While the peaches, due to the weather conditions, suffered from fruit set problems, there are no better results for the cherries, either in terms of production quality, or in terms of trade. At least not for our company." "The producer prices for peaches of the My Crest and Lolita variety at the beginning of the season, meaning the first cuts, were around 2 euro/kg and then they stabilized a little lower in the following days. The trend was similar for the Grace Star cherry variety, which started well at a price of 6 euro/kg, but unfortunately our production was lacking. However, we were unable to fully grasp any commercial opportunity because of production reasons, even though our crops are certified and valuable, and highly appreciated abroad." "After these disappointing results - revealed the expert - we are now looking forward to the Coscia pear season, which will start in July, almost at the same time as the grape season, which opens with the early Pink Muscat variety." The farm extends over a total of 45 hectares, 30 of which are cultivated with grapes. The varieties grown here include Italia and Red Globe, which are the autochthonous varieties of the area. In addition, seedless grapes are grown on more than 10 hectares, and include Centennial seedless, Crimson, Regal, Autumn Royal, King Ruby. For some time now, Dario Brucculeri's company has also inserted in its production calendar the Apulia and Luisa varieties, for an additional 7 hectares of seedless grapes. This company is known for the elimination of chemicals in phytosanitary treatments and it succeeds in this purpose by bagging every single bunch of grapes, which avoids the oviposition of the Tignola on the grapes. This method was first applied in 1989, in an effort to overcome the use of synthetic pesticides, and this decision enabled the company to enter the most sought-after markets of Europe, with an upward impact that increased the intrinsic value of the product, which is also certified as Biodynamic, appreciated and paid more than 30% more than the conventional product. As of today, this company's grapes reach the main German and French retailers; it exports to other countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium. Specifically, 38% of the production is exported to Germany, 43% to France, 15% to Scandinavia and the remaining 4% is sold between Belgium and the Netherlands. Source - https://www.freshplaza.com