In a song from 1987, Giuni Russo extolled the summer and her desire to go on vacation to the borders of Peru, where she would eat mango, papaya, and pineapple.
If in the past exotic fruit came mainly from South America, today climate change has turned the tables, or, to stay on topic, the fruit. Sicilia, Puglia and Calabria are now expert regions in the cultivation of fruit originally from Asia and Latin America. We are talking about well-known fruits such as bananas, mangoes, limes, and lesser known and rarer ones such as anoma, feijoa, casimiroa, black zapote or lychee.
A consumption that, according to the data estimated by Coldiretti, is around 900 thousand tons. Numbers reached in just three years, thanks to farmers who have worked for a long time to recover abandoned land.
But to conquer the podium, winning the title of favorite exotic fruit of the Italians is the avocado, enough to deserve its own day, the Avocado Day, held on July 31st.
Very popular among young people, it is used in many recipes, whether sweet or savory: uramaki, toasts, salads, pies, sauces and gravies. It is estimated that in one year about 45 tons of avocados have been ordered through online shopping.
To make these figures possible is Sicily, where the avocado has found its land. Some agricultural entrepreneurs, moved by an intuition and by the desire to carry on a job handed down from generation to generation, have decided to dedicate themselves to the cultivation of something new, taking advantage of the new climatic conditions offered by some areas of Sicily, more and more similar to tropical ones.
And if purchase choices are usually dictated by the idea that the original is always better than its copy, Italians prefer to stick to the principle that no place is like home, rewarding – once again – Made in Italy. In fact, 71% of Italians are willing to pay more in exchange for the guarantee of the national origin of exotic fruits.
With rising temperatures and the scorching heat of summer, which we are leaving behind, tropical fruit Made in Italy is an adaptive and resilient response to climate change, but also a choice that ITA0039 supports and encourages, as it represents an evolution of the basket of our products with high quality standards: support for local businesses, knowledge of the place of origin of what we eat, less travel and therefore lower CO2 emissions. But, above all, a supply chain that is controlled, transparent and respectful of the nature that surrounds it.
These are all qualities that – along with many others – ITA0039 considers fundamental in order to obtain the ITA0039 | 100% Italian Taste Certification, a certainty that is added to a strict and scrupulous agri-food system, where safety – guaranteed by the rigorous rules imposed on producers – ensures that our products are the most controlled, protected, but above all the most registered as PDO and PGI.
Even exotic fruit can’t resist the charm of real Made in Italy!
