The prices of'agri-food continue to increase, with quality products, excellence of Made in Italy, among the most penalized. Many local markets in Milan, Rome, Naples, Turin see sales drop day after day with a social condition that hasn't been seen for years: producers and consumers on the same bank. The Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market (Ismea) ascertained that in three months agricultural costs soared by more than 18%.
In short, a growing sector of the Italian economy continues to be massacred by the cost of energy, the price of fertilizers and seeds. An economic short circuit that clashes with all the good practices to make the products of the earth competitive and successful. Ismea conducted a survey on a sample of 795 primary sector companies and 586 primary and secondary food processing companies.
The data collected starts from a +6% turnover in 2021, but imagining a similar growth trend in less than 90 days has turned into a nightmare. The well-known international events - and not only due to the shortage of wheat - and the difficulty of agricultural enterprises to support the economic situation on their own give a picture of what Italy is experiencing. Cost increases and business prospects will be reported in a specific Report in a few days.
Agricultural costs: the increases more on energy and fertilizers
Advances speak of costs incurred by farmers about 20,4% for vegetable crops. The items that weigh the most are wages, energy products, fertilizers. However, the hardest blow to the entire agri-food sector was dealt thereenergy increased by 2022% in 50,6. Quality fertilizers increased by 36,2%. The humiliation of the increases casts shadows on the entire Community Agricultural Policy ready to go. The increases, albeit with different intensity depending on the combination of production factors - says Ismea - are more pronounced in the case of industrial crops, oilseeds and cereal crops. Animal husbandry is also affected, with the disbursements of farmers increased by 16,6% which had as a consequence the increases in the prices of farm animals and feed.
In recent weeks there had been complaints about agro-food spending by trade organizations, but evidently we must prepare ourselves for a long period of rising prices. The dynamics of sales prices – better to say the generalized cost of living – has shown that it is not always able to absorb the higher costs, exposing farmers to the erosion of margins.
What to do? There is no clear answer yet. Surely the picture of these weeks is configured "as an event of extraordinary importance". But in addition to the distancing of consumers, they are also dealing with a drop in operator confidence accentuated by marked pessimism of farmscompared to industries. Making the country as self-sufficient as possible for food resources by returning central agriculture to national and European objectives, is the opinion of Coldiretti which foresees the increase of food prices up to 2024.
