Puglia, the climate stops the ripening of tomatoes.The alarm:«The Chinese one arrives on the tables»

Over a third of all Italian tomatoes are produced in the heel of the country

Climate change is putting one of the main ingredients of Italian cuisine at risk:the tomato.The alarm comes from Puglia, where heat waves alternating with violent storms did not allow sauce tomatoes to ripen properly.The problem is serious because a large part of the Italian tomato is produced in the heel of the country, a fifth of the national total in the Foggia area alone.But the risk is double, because, in the absence of Italian concentrate, the sauce is produced with tomato paste from China which in the past has often been passed off as Italian even if it wasn't.The Chinese product has a concrete advantage over our local one:it costs half as much.Thanks to the large volumes produced and the exploitation of workers in Xianjiang, the Chinese region where the government forces the Muslim Uighur minority into forced labor.

Revenues are reduced

The Apulian farmers, responsible for 20 million of the 55 million quintals produced by our country, are in difficulty.Climatic anomalies reduce the harvest and increase the costs of a good that is paid between 5 and 17 cents per kilo wholesale.Compared to around 1.60 euros for a 700 milliliter bottle of puree, revenues remain very low, reports the Corriere del Mezzogiorno.For this reason, Coldiretti and Filiera Italia are pushing for the government "to act as spokesperson to the European Commission for the request for an absolute ban on the import of Chinese tomato concentrate, especially if coming from the Xinjiang region".Among the concerns there is also that for the healthiness of the Chinese tomato, whose production hygiene standards are more difficult to control.