According to estimates by the Italian Farmers' Confederation CIA, storms and hail in Southern Italy have caused a total loss amounting at least to 100 million euros, maybe more, after bad weather hit the area around Bari and Lecce on Friday, May 21, particularly affecting the harvest of cherries.

South of Bari, the situation is dramatic, especially in the area of Turi, Conversano, Castellana Grotte Sammichele, Putignano, Alberobello and Noci where rain and wind have irreversibly damaged the harvest of cherries, Italian web-magazine CorriereOrtofrutticolo.it reported.

According to estimates by CIA, up to 80-90% of the crop of "Bigarreau" and "Giorgia" varieties is compromised. As for "Ferrovia", which is partly still ripening, the damage hit about 40% of production.

Saverio Di Palma, producer of Conversano and among the largest exporters of cherries in the world, made an initial count of the damage: "I have never seen anything like this in May," he said, as reported the local newspaper Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. "Water, wind and hail in some areas stroke hundreds of acres of cherry trees. The bad weather has hit Conversano affecting 40-50% of Ferrovia cherry production, now ripening. Whole fields of Bigarreau Moreau cherries which were just about to be collected, appeared irreversibly damaged. We are slightly more optimistic for the cultivation of the Ferrovia variety, which lie further upstream, and in the countryside of Turi and Casamassima. I forecast a loss for 5 up to 10 million euros."

Interviewed by Emanuele Zanini of CorriereOrtofrutticolo.it, Antonio Balacco, technician of the company "Giuliano" near Turi (Bari), revealed that "90% of the Bigarreau variety has been compromised, as it was in full harvesting. 70% of the harvest of early Ferrovia is irretrievable." Damages to late products instead have been limited, "because the product - said Balacco - was still green and unripe so it held up better to the rain. If there are no new rainfall we may harvest a good product."

The fact remains that so far Giuliano suffered a loss amounting to 5 million euros in the cherry segment, which accounts for 10% of the business of the company, specializing in table grapes.

"We demand an immediate monitoring of the damaged areas and their boundaries - stated the president of CIA-Puglia Antonio Barile - and we urge extraordinary interventions by the Government to meet the losses incurred by farmers. It is essential, therefore, for the areas affected, to declare immediately a state of natural disaster and suspend all tax payments, pension contributions and agricultural bills as well as provide for the extension of loans. Besides these issues - claims the president of CIA Puglia - there is also the slump in sales and prices on the fields, which is giving farmers some concern."