Francesco Albano , president of the Consortium, comments: “ It was an excellent year, with excellent production and quantity. The scarce rainfall in the key periods certainly helped the production campaign. The definitive data on the quantities processed by the Consortium will be available only at the end of the harvest with the transmission of the data to the CSQA certification body, but an initial estimate is between 6,000 and 7,000 quintals, of which at least 30% as PGI. However, there are still a few days to go and the climate, even if the heat is suffocating, is helping us. ”
On the sales counters, the Bracigliano IGP Cherry was sold to consumers for up to 7 euros per kg and in some cases and in some places even more. “ This – explains Albano – partly comforts us, because it has allowed the entire supply chain to have greater revenues. The Consortium has played a crucial role in bringing together producers and packagers to tie the supply chain and to launch the Bracigliano IGP Cherry. There is still a lot to do to fully understand the added value of the IGP, after all, big changes happen gradually, but we can say with certainty that 2025 was the first year in which the IGP product was talked about. I believe that year after year there will certainly be improvements, which will bring benefits to everyone .”
The Bracigliano IGP Cherry has also benefited, among other things, from the scarcity of the Apulian product. “Thanks to the support of Gal Terra è Vita and Confagricoltura Salerno – Albano confirms – we have also found adequate commercial solutions. Apulian companies have come to buy our IGP cherries and, always protecting the packers adhering to our consortium, a profitable synergy has been created, there have been no discussions on the quality and evaluation of our product, we have certainly laid the foundations for future collaborations”.
At the moment the market outlets are local and national, even if some producers have also ventured abroad. “ On this side – says Antonio Costantino , president of Confagricoltura Salerno – we still need to work, creating the conditions for a real supply chain that can provide answers to new markets and to ensure that this excellence of our region can return to being a source of profitable income for the local communities of the production area and also a push for the many young people who today think more about leaving their native places than creating a future for themselves in their land.”
And to further support this perspective, work is already underway on a subsequent step, “ the birth – Costantino announces – of a PO between producers of lemons, cherries and white figs of Cilento, two other great excellences of our territory. The will of us producers is to aggregate and team up, to emerge, compete and mark the great quality of our productions. We firmly believe in the path undertaken to build a dignified future and growth of our realities.”
Source: Confagricoltura Salerno