The Fruit Industry in Italy: an overview

The different climatic zones of the long Peninsula allow Italy to have one of Europe’s most varied fruit industries. These zones enable a large number of temperate, Mediterranean and sub-tropical horticultural crops to be grown on a relatively small land area. The Italian fruit industry has a long successful tradition. Temperate fruits (apple, pear, peach, apricot, plum, cherry, kiwifruit, hazelnut, almond, chestnut, walnut, olive, grape, citrus, strawberry) and subtropical fruits (anona, fejoa, avocado) play an important role both in the export and internal market scenario. Italian researchers and growers are at the forefront of innovation and are very responsive to market signals and rapidly replace older cultivars with newer ones to provide greater returns. Integrated and organic fruit production management are being adopted in response to consumer demand and new harvest and postharvest handling, storage and packaging techniques are adopted being in response to the demands of globalization.