Crazy weather sends fruit prices through the roof? No problem, a 19-year-old boy will take care of it. His name is Elia Fedrigo, is from Veneto, and despite his young age he has already joined the Youth team of Confagricoltura Verona. The reason? The boy has embraced and re-proposed in his 1,5 hectares of cherry trees in Castagnaro, the idea of Gregory Lang of Michigan State University, and that is to cultivate cherries in greenhouses not only to defend them from extreme and unforeseen phenomena, such as this year's spring frosts (which also caused the prices of other seasonal fruits to skyrocket, such as peaches and apricots), but also to have ripe fruits in advance, beating the competition on time.
“Mine is the only plant of this kind in Veneto and, I believe, also in Italy – said the very young farmer -. We are not talking about anti-hail nets, but about a real plastic sheet, 4.80 meters high, which protects the plants from bad weather and sudden changes in temperature, as already happens with strawberries. The height of the tarpaulin allows the plants to develop: the branches are tied to the upward pulling wires and act as a rod. We planted 1.500 plants 2 meters apart. We chose the early line to arrive on the market earlier than cherries grown outdoors. In a normal season, the fruits could ripen as early as early May. The production potential is 80 quintals”.
Elia Fedrigo also met with Gregory Lang, the creator (with excellent results) of the cherries grown in tunnels conducted in North America: in fact, the American researcher wanted to personally verify the result of the planting in a climate different from that of the North America. In any case, not an extraordinary result, given the very complicated season, but which in any case made it possible – unlike most of the other growers – to safeguard the harvest: “It's a pity that the season was what it was – commented Fedrigo -. Sure, we haven't had the losses of so many of my colleagues, though the humidity has also done damage, making the fruits soft and causing, albeit to a lesser extent, the cracking phenomenon (ie the 'split' of the fruit, a very frequent phenomenon for cherries but also for apples and pears, ed)”.
The cherry growing season was dramatic, in Veneto as in the whole country, due to bad weather. "Cherry growing - explained Francesco Sottile in an interview recently, professor of tree cultivation and biodiversity and quality of the agri-food system at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo and member of the national executive committee of Slow Food Italy - has undergone in 2019 a very tough test, after a season in which he had already had to overcome climatic conditions due to abundant rains in flowering and to the prolonged and repeated returns of cold in the last stage of maturation. In the end the rain arrived at the very moment in which it is most fearful for the cherries which in the last phase of ripening suffer greatly from the water imbalances in the soil and the strong wetting of the fruit”.
Cracking has made many fruits unmarketable, but in addition to the damage to farmers, there has also been an insult: the cherries, although unsaleable, cannot remain abandoned on the trees because they could compromise the following year's production and be a receptacle for insect oviposition. The result of these complications has spilled over to consumers, with prices absolutely out of control. An example: in Milan, in recent weeks a kilo of cherries can cost over 15 euros, while in Palermo the average is 6 euros but with peaks of 10 euros.
In the future, following the example of 19-year-old Elia Fedrigo, this problem can be avoided. The Veronese, while working in the countryside, continues to study aiming at graduation (“I do it for my personal satisfaction”), but the sacrifice doesn't weigh on him: “I get up at 6 and I don't have schedules – he said, interviewed by Cronache di Gusto -. I often work on Sundays. But I lead a normal life as a twenty-year-old: I go out, see friends, go out on Saturday nights. You just need to know how to organize yourself”. He is passionate about being a farmer: “It's what I want to do in life. Then in Confagricoltura I found many young colleagues: we talk, we find impulses to do and grow even with experiences abroad. If you poke your nose out of Italy, you discover that farms are light years ahead: they are more modern, more technological. Too many times we make attempts. Instead we need to start thinking like real entrepreneurs, with greater control over production and a precise vision of the market”.
