The GPC’s Ask The Experts Europe Italy panel featured Moderator/Analyst Katia Sambin of Chippewa Valley Bean and panelists Angela Fabris of Fabris & Co, Antonio Borrelli of PEDON, Giovanna Sepe of La Doria and Denis Xausa of CAXA.
In her presentation Katia highlighted that Italy is the 3rd largest economy in the Euro zone and the 8th largest in the world. She showed some EU data on market behaviour and went into detail for each pulse. She indicated that in Italy, Turkish chickpea imports are gaining market share and so the recent Turkish chickpea export ban will most likely affect numbers for 21/22. She mentioned that Ukrainian beans are also gaining market share.
Panelists mentioned that lentils are a hugely popular pulse in Italy and are mostly imported from the US, Canada and Turkey. It was also mentioned that lentil sales normally peak around Christmas as Italians believe that eating them at the end of the year is a sign that good fortune will come to you in the new year. Italy’s main market is for large lentils and Borelli forecasted a positive trend for the coming years. Giovanna Sepe, who has been in the industry since 2005, mentioned that this was the worst year she has ever seen, highlighting such problems as prices going up, a short carry over due to huge consumption in 2020, the drought in the US plus energy costs and freight costs. She indicated that the consumer is not so aware of the price increase because of a balancing act by supermarkets.
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