In the South, the harvest will continue this week and next week and should end with a total volume of about 2.5 million tonnes. Rains in the last week and yesterday in Puglia have created problems for the harvest and lowered yields. Factories are producing especially food service formats because there is a high demand.
In the North, the last figures released by the OI Nord show that as of 18/09, 2.71 million tonnes (88% of the contracted volume) had been processed with an average brix of 4.86 and 4.62% of penalties. During the last week, ending 25/09, it is estimated that a further 150,000 tonnes were processed bringing the total to c. 2.85 million tonnes. After rains last weekend almost all the factories have closed and only one or two factories continue processing small volumes this week.
The total crop for Italy will probably finish a bit lower than 5.4 million tonnes, depending on the weather condition of these last two weeks of the harvest.