The summit  - which was organized by CSO (Italy's Fruit and Vegetable Service Center) and Macfrut with the contribution of the Emilia Romagna region and the participation of European experts - revealed that the world fruit production is on the rise, growing by 17% since the beginning of the 21st century.

The total production in Europe, instead, is slightly but steadily declining from just over 70 million tonnes in 2000 to the current 60 million tonnes. In this framework, Italy accounts for 30% of the total fruit production in the EU-27, followed by Spain with 25%, France (16%) and Greece (6%). (Source CSO / FAO).

This is not sufficient, however, to outline the state of health of a sector emerging from a troubled summer, with clear problems due to the fragility of the trade management of highly perishable products such as peaches and nectarines, that heavily suffer from negative seasonal trends or overproduction.

This point has been well remarked by Emilia Romagna Counicillor for Agriculture Tiberio Rabboni, who launched an idea to develop in 2010: the organization during Macfrut of an annual G20 for fruit and vegetables, in order to put in comparison European producing countries and analyze thoroughly the points of weakness and strength of the fresh produce industry.

However the "state of crisis" - a phrase that was often reiterated during the Summit - is also to be attributed to an overall difficult situation not only for peaches and nectarines, but also for strawberries, that are facing troubled times in Spain as well as in Italy. Exports have dropped and some major importing Countries such as Germany, for example, now can boast a significant domestic production which reduce foreign supplies’ market share.

During the 1st European Fruit Summit autumn crops’ forecasts were presented, which revealed a less critical situation on the whole.

Apples, thanks to innovations in varieties and product range that have allowed successful experiences both in Italy and worldwide, are facing the market with strong brand differentiating policies.

For pears, the situation outlined at the Summit is still different. This is a quite difficult fruit to grow for which consumption is falling. However it is still a valuable product, to be considered top of the range, for which a situation of market stability is confirmed, at least for the most exclusive varieties like Abate.

Kiwifruits, whose leading producer at global level is still Italy, has yet unmet potentials, especially as far as exports are concerned. But players must be prudent in trying to expand the range and the business calendar.

Oranges and citrus fruits in general are recovering after some very difficult campaigns: varietal research, innovation and better organization are needed. The sector urges concrete measures on which it is necessary to reach a broad consensus of the whole supply chain and institutions, declared CSO President Paolo Bruni. "Among the possible measures to defeat the crisis - said Mr. Bruni - we are considering to establish a register of European fruit and vegetable crops to constantly monitor the situation of production and trade, so that these are as much balanced as possible to the real market demand. We are also thinking of establishing an observatory to supervise the European markets’ trends: this could mean a collaboration among all producer countries.

The First European Fruit Summit was an important and appreciated event which gathered over 350 professionals. It was also the occasion to present the "Grappolo d'oro Export" award 2009, received by South-Tyrol-based apple exporters' Consortium VOG (see related news).