African and Italian agriculture have become one, the Mediterranean no longer separates us. Antò, it's hot. So recited an unforgettable commercial from a few years ago, which sponsored a product to cool off during the summer. In the meantime, however, due to climate change, Italian summers (and around the world) have become increasingly hot, changing not only our habits (today iced tea is no longer enough, you need air conditioning on the worst days …) but also the very characteristics of our territory and our crops
Now with climate change underway for a few decades those fruits that were once called tropical and you could find them in specialized shops are now quietly grown in Italy and not only in the extreme offshoots of the peninsula. In fact, the cultivation of tropical fruit in Italy has doubled in less than three years with a boom of over a thousand hectares between Puglia, Sicily and Calabria. From bananas with mango, from avocado to lime, from passion fruit to custard, from feijoa to casimiroa, from black zapote to lychee, up to the thay aubergine (Thai variant of our aubergine), macadamia (dried fruit halfway between almond and hazelnut) and even with sugar cane for a total consumption estimated at over 900 thousand tons nationwide.
This was discussed during the General Assembly of Italian flower growers on the green future of cities in Giarre (Catania) in reference to the climate commitments of Cop 26 in Glasgow with the presentation of Italian tropical productions and the live preparation of the first fruit salad exotic fruits Made in Italy, in the presence of the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini and the Minister of Agricultural Policies Stefano Patuanelli.
More and more often in the southern regions - underlines Coldiretti - first they experiment and then start real fruit plantations originating in distant tropical countries. Sicily takes the lion's share of this new phenomenon, with avocado and mango crops of different varieties in the countryside between Messina, Etna and Acireale, but also passion fruit, black zapote (similar to persimmon, of Mexican), sapodilla (from which latex is also obtained), lychee, the small Chinese fruit that resembles Muscat grapes.
All thanks to the commitment of young farmers who have chosen this type of cultivation, often recovering and revitalizing land abandoned precisely because of climate change and previously intended for the production of oranges and lemons. A choice to meet the need for over six Italians out of 10 (61%) who would buy Italian tropicals if they had them available instead of foreign ones. According to a Coldiretti-Ixè survey. Furthermore, 71% of citizens would be willing to pay more to have the certainty of the national origin of tropicals. A trend motivated by the greater degree of freshness but also by concerns about the safety guarantees of the imported product.
The novelty is not only Italian and is also affecting other European countries, such as Spain. In the Iberian country we will soon switch from oranges to papaya: the countryside, due to the warmer temperatures, is undergoing a cultural revolution, so if almond production doubles in the last three years in Castile, the medlar groves in the Alicante area are transformed and become subtropical cultures such as mangoes and papayas. Other examples: the climate of the Cuenca mountain range, with cold winters and minimal rainfall, has become very good for wild truffles, while in the Toledo region many pistachio, almond or olive plantations are springing up, which have replaced the traditional cereals.
"The phenomenon of Made in Italy exotic trees, driven by the commitment of many young farmers - comments the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini - is an example of the innovation capacity of Italian agricultural companies in tackling climate change constructively despite the difficulties and the damage caused by increasingly extreme weather events which in the last ten years have caused over 14 billion euros in damage to our agri-food system”
