Producing Trop­ical Fruit in Italy

It’s the begin­ning of May when, for the first time in my life, I step into an Annona (custard apple) fruit field. I’m in Catona di Reggio Calabria, in southern Italy, and this is not just any Annona cher­i­mola plot, but the first one that was created in the region in the 1990s: the Bilardi Annona fruit farm. It came to life from a dream of Dr Domenico Bilardi, an agron­o­mist who in 1988 decided to intro­duce cuttings of a very ancient fruit from Central and South America to the family citrus fruit orchards. The Annona fruit was prob­ably first grown during the Inca era in the valleys between the Andes of Ecuador and Peru.

Intro­ducing such fruit to Italy was a real chal­lenge in those years, as trop­ical fruits were not in high demand nor well-known in the region. But Domenico over­came this chal­lenge by also growing mango and avocado crops. Since 2018 his wife and his sons, Francesco, Paolo and Fabrizio, have been contin­uing this legacy. “We work eight to nine hectares in Reggio Calabria and, to a lesser extent, in Vibo Valentia,” says Francesco. “We only have open-air facil­i­ties and grow and market several crops in the region.” The family sells about 40t a year in total, divided among different vari­eties of Annona (20t), avocado (10t), mango (8t) and about a tonne of passion fruit, on top of 8-10t of berg­amot, lemons and oranges grown on 2.5ha. “We grew by moni­toring the market and its fluc­tu­a­tions all the time and decided to add value to these prod­ucts by showing the link to the land,” says Francesco.

New Consumer Trends

Thanks to online sales and the dealer network, which was created over the years, the Bilardis are now able to reach customers all over Italy. “We supply private customers as well as fruit and vegetable markets, small resellers and soli­darity buying groups: Targeted niches that recog­nise the value and the quality of our fruits,” adds Francesco. “We ship anywhere in the Penin­sula, combining the deliv­eries, but we also sell to Austria and Switzer­land.”

The farm’s produce is hand-picked from ladders, with different vari­eties ripening in succes­sion – from August/September until December/January. The team then package and ship the fruit by courier, to avoid having to cold-store it for long.

Although mango, avocado and passion fruit are now well-known, the Annona fruit is less common and there­fore sparks a partic­ular interest. “It’s in high demand – people are attracted to different prod­ucts,” notes Francesco. “They increas­ingly choose fruits with a known origin and which – like ours – do not have to travel long distances and undergo treat­ments to extend their shelf life. Our fruit is zero km and grown without plant protec­tion prod­ucts.”

This philos­ophy ties in with emerging consumer trends and the lifestyles of vege­tar­ians, vegans and sports players. Further­more, borrowing from other cultures is more common­place now, so trop­ical fruits are more well-known. Contrary to popular belief, the increase in trop­ical fruit grown in Italy is not linked to climate change; it has been culti­vated for decades – it’s just that consumers’ percep­tions and demands have changed.

The proof is in the data. According to a study by Ismea Mercati – the insti­tute of agri­cul­ture and food services – imports of both mangoes and avoca­does to Italy boomed from 2018 to 2022: +37% (from 13,500t to 18,500t) and +120% (from 20,000t to 45,0000t), respec­tively.

Growing oppor­tu­ni­ties

To success­fully grow these tree­like crops, farmers must consider the suit­ability of the area, with minimum and maximum temper­a­tures and adequate soil. It should be neither heavy nor life­less, to avoid water­log­ging, but have a medium mix and a balanced drainage; in fact, water is key. “We have irri­ga­tion systems every­where, supplied through wells on the various plots,” says Francesco. “We are in the process of reno­vating them to limit water consump­tion.

To date the farm culti­vates about 10t of avocado. People are attracted to different fruits and they increas­ingly choose prod­ucts they know where they are coming from and that do not undergo long distances trans­port and treat­ments to extend the shelf life,

The farm is exper­i­menting with several other vegetal species, among which finger lime, which it already supplies to many restau­rants.

“Pruning is impor­tant for Annona, mango and avocado, and for nutrient supply – espe­cially during the first years – we use local seasoned manure. We sow nitrogen-fixing legumes and always take soil tests to check micro and macro-nutrient avail­ability, as well as analysing soil struc­ture. We act in a sustain­able way, and, for crop protec­tion, we use chro­motropic (glue) traps and protein insec­ti­cide baits against Mediter­ranean fruit flies on the Annona fruit, whereas for mango bacte­riosis we use a copper fungi­cide.”

The initial invest­ment costs are high: Between the purchase of fruit trees, cultivation, basic fertil­i­sa­tion and irri­ga­tion systems, it costs €15,000-20,000/ha (£12,510-16,680/ha), almost triple compared to other crops. The earn­ings, however, are more than triple, with a retail price of €5-7/kg (£4.20-5.85/kg) for Annona, mango and avocado compared to €1/kg (83p/kg) for citrus fruits.

“We have several part­ner­ships with univer­si­ties and research centres to receive updates about diseases and market trends.” Together with Mediter­ranea Univer­sity of Reggio Calabria, the farm is studying the possi­bility of extending the shelf life of Annona fruit (currently only four days) through different cultivation methods and appli­ca­tion of natural substances. They’re also looking at how to process the different fruits. “We already produce some jams and are exper­i­menting with several other types of fruit, among which finger lime, which we supply to many restau­rants,” says Francesco. “We also welcome schools and other groups for farm tours and manage a B&B.

For the future we want to increase produc­tion and join other local producers to estab­lish a consor­tium, if possible. In 10 years, we would like to culti­vate about 20ha and, who knows, maybe in the mean­time a desig­na­tion of origin for the Annona fruit will have been estab­lished: It would be useful to increase the value of this product.”

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Vittorio Farina:

“Essen­tial earn­ings and quality”

“In Italy, trop­ical fruit produc­tion started with univer­sity research in the 1960s and ’70s, becoming commer­cial in the ’80s and ’90s as citrus fruits suffered a drop in economic returns. This exper­i­men­ta­tion started with avocado, mango and, later, papaya, as well as other minor species, grown along­side existing citrus fruit facil­i­ties.

These crops are very prof­itable with huge demand, both in Italy and across Europe but, since they aren’t native to the Mediter­ranean region, they need specialised manage­ment throughout the entire supply chain. This is where the Univer­sity comes into its own. Among the most specialised univer­si­ties is the Univer­sity of Palermo and its Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture, Food and Forestry Sciences. It has long studied the adap­ta­tion of different species and cultivation tech­niques and is also working on adding value to product waste, to create a circular system.

The Italian fruits are tree ripe, ready to eat, zero km, often organic, with a low envi­ron­mental impact and superb health bene­fits compared to imported produce. But they require careful agro­nomic manage­ment: In winter they must be protected against the cold and in the summer against the heat and require an optimal quan­tity of water.

Since 2000, the research has really taken, with find­ings shared with farmers for best results. However, better knowl­edge exchange between acad­e­mics and farmers is required as the number of fruit farms  increases across Apulia, Campania and Sardinia, on top of well-known Sicily – the leader – and Calabria. Consumers are increas­ingly canny and very inter­ested in where their food comes from, so farms need to be both prof­itable and envi­ron­men­tally sustain­able, producing high-quality fruit in order to justify a premium price over imported produce. If earn­ings and quality are not guar­an­teed, you are out of the market.”

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