Italy already faces an additional cost of 13 billion euros for freight transport compared to competitors from other countries

With almost 5.6 billion euros (+ 8%) it is a historic record for Made in Italy fruit and vegetables abroad with exports reaching their all-time high in 2021, doubling the values recorded at the debut of the century, but the result is now jeopardized by the marked increase in transport costs with peaks of + 35% driven by the price of fuel and the lack of infrastructures and commercial hubs in Italy.

This is what emerges from Coldiretti’s analysis of Istat data in reference to Fruit Logistica 2022 in Berlin, the main international trade fair where the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, is present on-site to meet Italian operators who are largely concerned about the impact of the war in Ukraine.

The Made in Italy fruit and vegetable products that grow most in value abroad – explains Coldiretti – are apricots (+ 75%), apples (+ 5%), kiwis (+ 2%), tomatoes (+10, 5%), lettuce (+ 4%), cabbage (+ 10%), grapes are stable (+ 0.4%) while citrus fruits (-9%) and potatoes (-15.6%) are decreasing .

The consumers who appreciate Italian fruit and vegetables the most are the Germans who put almost a third (30.4%) of everything shipped abroad from Italy into their shopping cart, with a value of almost 1.7 billion. in 2021 up by 5%. Behind Germany is France with over 580 million euros of purchases of Italian fruit and vegetables, followed by Austria with almost 354 million.

But the upward trend also involves the United Kingdom, despite the difficulties linked to Brexit, where consumption grows by 7.7% for a shopping cart worth over 279 million euros. And, before the Russian troops started the military invasion, the positive trend also involved Ukraine with a 4% growth in purchases.

In this scenario, the surge in fuel prices, according to Coldiretti, “risks unleashing a storm on logistics costs with Italy which already has to face an additional cost of 13 billion euros for freight transport compared to competitors from other countries. .

In Italy, the average cost per kilometer for heavy transport goods is equal to 1.12 euros per kilometer, higher than countries such as France (1.08 euros/kilometer) and Germany (1.04 euros/kilometer), but even double if we consider the realities of Eastern Europe: in Latvia, the cost of road transport is 0.60 euros per kilometer, in Romania 0.64 euros/kilometer; in Lithuania 0.65 euros/kilometer, in Poland 0.70 euros/kilometer “supports the analysis on data from the Centro Studi Divulga.

The president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, explains that “in this perspective, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) financed with the Recovery Fund can be decisive for acting on Italy’s structural delays and unlocking all the infrastructures that would improve connections between the South and the North of the country and also with the rest of the world by sea and rail at high speed, with a network of hubs made up of airports, trains, and cargo “.

Source: Shipping Italy