Due to the expensive wheat exchange market as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, spring sowing has begun in Italy with farmers pushing up the production of soybeans (+16%), corn (+1%) and sunflowers (+5%) to cope with the high prices and guarantee food supplies to families after the upheavals in world markets caused by the war in Ukraine.
This is what emerges from Coldiretti's analysis of the EU Commission's latest "Short term outlook" on agricultural markets in 2022, which highlights a recovery in crops despite the surge in costs due to the increases in seeds, fertilizers and diesel fuel needed for cultivation operations, with approximately 1/3 of national companies (30%) currently forced to work in a condition of negative income.
The sowing is an important moment to counteract the upheavals underway on world markets with the record cyclical increase in agricultural product prices of 12,6% detected by the FAO basket but also the worrying lack of supplies from Russia and Ukraine from which 13% of Italy's corn imports, 4,2% of wheat imports and a good 60% of sunflower oil arrived, according to the Divulga research centre.
According to EU projections - Coldiretti continues - the Italian soybean harvest intended for animal feed should exceed one million tons on over 290 thousand hectares of cultivated land, the sunflower harvest will reach almost 300 thousand tons on 122 thousand hectares while corn production will be over 6,1 million tons on more than 600 thousand hectares at a national level, despite the drought emergency that continues to affect important areas of the country starting from the Po Valley.
A trend also favored by the green light from the European Union to sow in Italy another 200 thousand hectares of land for an additional production of approximately 15 million quintals of corn for livestock, durum wheat for pasta and soft wheat for bread making, in order to reduce dependence on imports of the main agricultural products in Italy and the European Union.
It should also be noted that in a few months the harvest of wheat sown in autumn will begin in Italy and according to Istat, 500.596 hectares of soft wheat for bread are estimated, with an increase of 0,5% while the surface area of durum wheat is slightly down by 1,4% for a total of 1.211.304 hectares even if this first analysis is affected by the delays in sowing due to adverse weather conditions that could lead to revising the figure upwards.
A trend that contributes to reducing dependence on foreign countries in a situation in which Italy has become deficient in many raw materials and produces just 36% of the soft wheat needed for bread, biscuits, and sweets, 53% of the corn used to feed livestock, 56% of the durum wheat used for pasta, and 73% of barley. Italy in particular is forced to import agricultural raw materials due to – Coldiretti points out – the low compensation paid to farmers who have had to reduce national corn production by almost 1/3 in the last 10 years, during which one out of five wheat fields has also disappeared, with the loss of almost half a million hectares of cultivated land.
The war – Coldiretti underlines – has caused a shock to world markets with Russia and Ukraine representing 16% of corn trade (30 million tons) and 65% of sunflower oil sales (10 million tons) with a surge in raw material and energy prices that is putting the European Union in difficulty.
A tsunami that has also hit Italian agricultural companies with increases in production costs ranging from +170% for fertilizers to +129% for diesel with increases in current costs of over 15.700 euros on average, according to the Crea study which highlights that the ones most penalized with the greatest percentage increases are precisely the cultivation of cereals such as corn.
"We need to intervene to contain the high cost of energy and production costs with both immediate interventions to save companies and structural ones to plan the future of the national agricultural system, while at the community level we need more courage and resources to improve our food security by reducing dependence on imports of the main agricultural products and production factors" says the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini, underlining that "investments are needed to increase production and yields of land with rainwater accumulation basins to combat drought, but we also need to support public research with technological innovation to support production, biodiversity and as a tool to respond to climate change.
Article published on 9 April 2022 - 14:58
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