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The high cost of living jeopardizes not only family budgets. Calabrian companies are also paying the consequences of an international framework that is unstable to say the least. The president of Unindustria Calabria, Aldo Ferrara, warns of the danger that the results obtained in the last period could be lost.
For how much longer will the production system be able to see a surge in energy costs?
«Until today the Calabrian economy has held up and the numbers say so: regional exports in the first half of 2026 grew by 5.4%, more than the national average. But it would be a mistake to read this data as an insurance for the future. The most serious effects are not seen immediately: the adjustment processes take months. This is why I say clearly that we are starting to see the worst effects now and they could worsen in the near future. The most exposed companies – the energy-intensive ones, those who work in logistics and transport, the companies that depend on road transport, starting from the agri-food sector which is already showing signs of suffering today – have a margin of resilience that is by no means infinite”.
What do you ask of the national and regional governments?
«We need a real extraordinary plan to deal with a real emergency, for citizens and businesses. We need to significantly reduce the cost of energy and fuel. We ask the national government to strengthen the tools already activated, starting from the cap on fuel prices, which goes in the right direction but alone is not enough: we need a more incisive moral suasion on oil companies and we need to address the issue of the price differential linked to tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, which weighs disproportionately on territories like ours. From there, then, not only oil passes, but also other products necessary, for example, for the agri-food sector. We then need measures to support demand: measures that are structural, because the energy crisis is not an episode but a condition that we will have to deal with for longer. We ask the Region – with which direct dialogue continues regarding the most effective measures to be activated at this time – to replicate the tools already tested during the 2022-2023 energy crisis, adapting them to this new phase, and above all to guarantee continuity of investments: that is the lever that can compensate for the slowdown that is announced with the end of the Pnrr cycle”.
The social revolt of these days is the indicator of a malaise. What can be done immediately to calm the minds of those demonstrating?
«I understand the anger of those who block the roads these days, from farmers to transporters to families. It is not a protest that arises out of nowhere: it arises from a real discomfort. It is necessary for national and regional institutions to listen to the voice of those who protest without waiting for the mobilization to become uncontrollable and without letting the legitimate economic protest transform into a political battleground, which helps no one.”
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