As the tomato harvest comes to a close here's a quick summary of what we have learned which helps us identify our purchasing strategies.
As 2022 processing enters the last few weeks in most countries, production will not reach the level expected when the harvest started. The world production estimate stands currently at just under 37 million tonnes according to Tomato News.
In Italy specifically in the North, the latest figures show that as of the start of September 2.21 million tonnes had been processed with the expectation that by the end of September this figure would increase to 2.85 million tonnes which is an increase from the predictions at the start of the harvest.
In Southern Italy the forecast is reduced slightly to 2.55 million tonnes, at the start of the month more than 80% of the surfaces had been harvested of fresh tomatoes according with last satellite survey, with 3,800 hectares remaining to be harvested.
Thus the total for Italy remains the same at 5.4 million tonnes with a shift of some volume from the South.
In the bulletin you’ll find detail on:
- What is driving the +21% increase in the price of tomatoes as raw materials for processing?
- The prices being agreed in the north & south of Italy.
- Our assessment of the forecast for 2022 crop volumes.
Read our latest bulletin on tomatoes here.
