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“For the month of December we are registering an 80% drop in orders. We leave the unsold bottles in the warehouse, but they cannot stay there for years, we are talking about food that must be consumed sooner or later. The cellars are overloaded, between loose product and unsold bottled material. However the market stops. There is no supply-demand game and wine is devalued ”. Emanuele Calaon This is how he sums up the pre-Christmas situation that he lives in his winery with attached family farmhouse, Bacchus and Ariadne. Twenty hectares of surface – fifteen of vineyards, two of olive trees, the rest of arable land – in Vo ‘, the Venetian town in the province of Padua, one of the first outbreaks of the pandemic. Direct sale but also to wine bars and restaurants. Covid has abandoned orders of wine baskets and gifts for individuals and companies, breaking a long tradition.
It is better but not too much in Monopoli, 40 kilometers south of Bari. Carlo Barnaba runs together with the brothers Chianchizza farm, olive farm with oil mill and farmhouse, the latter closed in recent days. We will update in January, when the restrictions will be relaxed. The main production is extra virgin olive oil, in cans and bottles. In total 150 hectares of land, between property and rent. 90% destined for olive trees. The rest of the arable land, centenary carob trees, almond trees. “The oil campaign begins in mid-October. At the same time the first orders arrive, always confirmed until the start of our activity. We sell to individuals and hotels: this second sector has disappeared. And it’s the part that will be missing this year, even 20 – 30% on the final bill”Says Barnaba. The unsold bottles? “By law, from the moment of bottling it can be kept for 18 months. We look forward to selling them in the meantime. The fresh pasta we made with our wheat instead we are giving it away. It expires in four months ”.
Coldiretti looks at the spending figures for 2019 and predicts, for this year, a loss that will affect almost all the food that has always been on our table. The crux is in the closures: “High-level products, in Italy, are broadcasted largely by catering, which at the moment is a stopped sector, or almost. Christmas shopping, therefore, will bring with it losses in products of excellence, linked to this medium. Cheese, meat, wine, oil“He explains Lorenzo Bazzana, economic manager of Coldiretti. For it sparkling wine registered a decrease of 15%, for panettone 4%. As of December 25, 2019, an estimated expenditure of 900 million euros on fish and meat, including cold cuts, 430 million euros on sparkling wine, wine and other beverages, 280 million euros on desserts, including panettone, pandoro and bakery . And then 480 million euros for vegetables, preserves, fresh and dried fruits, 180 for pasta and bread and 130 million euros for cheese and eggs (data from Coldiretti / Ixè).
“About 30% of food consumption in our country is outside the home, especially during the Christmas period. Therefore, the inability to eat out will result in the loss of about a third of purchases, which we have estimated with 82 euros less per family“It happens.” Our forecast is for an overall drop in food spending by consumers of approx. 30 billion euros per year, with a drop of 12% compared to 2019 ”, continues Bazzana.
According to Coldiretti / Fondazione Divulga, since the beginning of the pandemic restoration billing has been cut in half (-48%) and this decline is not balanced by the greater spending on domestic consumption, up to 7% due to the need to stay indoors. A visible dynamic for example in the experience of Roberta Grosso, which manages the San Nazario farmhouse, 120 hectares of land for raising cattle and pigs in the Turin area. “The closure on the one hand took away the profits from the restaurant business, but on the other hand it made us know more about the locals, who, not being able to get too far, took stock from us,” he explains. “In recent months we have strengthened home delivery and the point of sale of our products.” Especially traditional meats and sausages. “Compared to last year many more customers are giving away food packages. Family packaging of meat, baskets with sausages and especially vouchers in butchers: in 2019 we proposed them but without getting a great response. This year we will have sold ten times more. Perhaps because we prefer to give importance to what is essential, such as food ”.
In the general panorama, the entire agri-food chain suffers, whose suppliers – such as Bacco and Arianna or Tenuta Chianchizza – also focus on purchases from restaurants. The lost sales of food and beverages to this specific channel will cause, according to Coldiretti, a loss of 9.600 million. The complete warehouses weigh on the activities of 740,000 farms, 70,000 food industries, more than 330,000 catering establishments and 230,000 points of sale. “Said this it cannot be said with certainty which product will hold up better than others. It depends on the habits and preferences of Italians in the kitchen. Even from the territory: our country has such a composition that it is normal for different menus and traditions to exist. In general, products linked to family customs will resist ”, concludes Bazzana,“ what is consumed in a non-domestic environment will inevitably decrease ”.
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