In recent years, the world of bergamot has been affected not only by a profound crisis linked to climate change, but also by an internal clash over the recognition of PGI. A situation that is undermining the great potential on the markets. These are two parallel crises that affect an essential sector, the economic backbone of an entire province and beyond. The bergamot growers, together with the mayor of Melito Porto Salvo Tito Nastasi, have raised the alarm about the climate crisis that is literally burning the bergamots on the trees, asking the regional and metropolitan city authorities for a meeting and the start of the crisis procedure. To date, no one has responded to the request for help, as happened in 2023, the year of the foundation of the spontaneous Committee of bergamot growers which supported the PGI for the bergamot of Reggio Calabria. Indeed, to be more precise: in 2023 politics (local and regional) had committed to ministerial aid to be allocated to the bergamot sector. The farmers, however, only discovered later that no procedure had ever been activated by the Region.
Today, however, the situation has significantly worsened, so farmers and technicians are asking not only for compensation for the loss of the product, but for specific emergency funding that can help farmers mitigate global warming. The mitigation actions, according to the agronomist Rosario Previtera, «will be increasingly important for bergamot growing not only to maintain the quality of the product, but also for the very survival of the plants and the entire ecosystem, which today constitutes a widespread bulwark against the desertification of the Ionian area as well as a safeguard of the existing level of agricultural biodiversity».
In such a scenario, in which the quantity of the product decreases, theoretically we could see an increase in the purchase price of bergamot in favor of the agricultural base. According to the Bergamot grower Giuseppe Falcone, however, it won’t go that way. «These rules – he explains – apply to the free market, but we operate in an oligopoly and sometimes in a true monopoly. The price will always be low for our bergamot growers, because the bergamot intended for essential oil is increasingly purchased from other provinces and other regions at controlled prices and the essential oil has always been cut by up to 80% by the essence industry which is intended for perfumery and cosmetics, which do not require any mark of identity and origin as they are not edible products”. This is why the battle over PGI, supported by around 600 companies, becomes pitched for producers. «The PGI – adds Falcone – will allow the bergamot grower to free themselves from the only market outlet that exists today, i.e. the essence industry, and to finally appear on the free market of fruit and vegetables and food with a quality brand. A brand that is increasingly requested by large-scale retail trade, which already pays prices for fresh bergamot that exceed 1.50 euros per kilo.” Recognition is now one step away: after the ministerial green light in Brussels, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court is expected to rule on the appeal of producers who support the PDO of the essential oil on 22 September.