CAPRILEONE ROCK Last summer, Sicilians tried to survive the oppressive heat. The temperature hurt in places to almost 50 degrees.
For the Morettino family, however, the ruthless sunbathing was lucky. It caused something unprecedented.
The family grows coffee bushes on the outskirts of the city of Palermo, which at the end of the summer yielded a greater harvest than ever before.
Andrea Morettino, 37, says the coffee harvest was for the family, especially his father Arturo important moment.
– It’s hard to describe in words how emotional it was when we tasted that coffee, he recalls.
Morettinos are a well-known coffee genus in Italy. The family has been making Italian espresso coffee from beans imported from elsewhere for a century.
The cultivation of his own coffee began in the 1990s, when Arturo Morettino got the idea to start growing his own shrubs on a business trip to Guatemala. It took time for the shrubs to get used to the climate of Sicily in the south of Italy. Yields improved over time, but their success varied.
Until then, the exceptional year 2021 arrived. It was a historic event for Morettino: they got coffee made that was produced in Europe from the beginning.
The actual 30-pound harvest for the actual sale was still too small, but the family sent tastings to the coffee experts. The interest of gastronomes arose around the world.
– The phone rang when chefs from many places called to see if you could get that coffee produced in Europe, Andrea Morettino says.
The exceptional coffee harvest in Morettino is one sign of the drastic change taking place in the Mediterranean, driven by a more rapid global warming than the rest of the world.
It brings inconvenience to local farmers. Some of the traditional plants in the area may not survive the changes. However, some farmers have seen that global warming can also be an opportunity, despite the great turmoil.
Also a Sicilian professor has seen increasingly hot summers in the 21st century. Last summer in particular was a taste of what’s to come.
The all-time heat record in Europe, 48.8 degrees, was measured just off the west coast of Sicily in Syracuse in August.
Elsewhere in Italy, the high pressure of Lucifer raised the temperature in many places to almost forty degrees. In addition to Italy, devastating wildfires raged in Algeria and Greece, for example.
The climate is indeed developing in parts of Sicily to be tropical, that is, humid and hot, confirms Vittorio Farina, Professor of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Palermo. However, this is not the case on the island as a whole: inland areas are suffering from drought.
– There is also a difference between the months. Some months have weather similar to the tropics, while others are closer to the traditional southern Italian climate, says Farina.
Farmers on the island have also been accustomed to the changes for decades, says Farina.
– If we look at climate change from the perspective of growing tropical fruits, it is mostly a positive thing, enabler.
Of course, Farina knows that, in general, it is not better to talk about climate change as a positive thing. And that is not the case for farmers in general either.
Climate reports are causing difficulties, for example, in agriculture, on which the region’s economy depends. Climate change is warming the Mediterranean 20 percent faster than the rest of the world, according to an international climate panel.
The unpredictability of the weather and the extreme phenomena of heavy rainfall and extreme heat are a threat to cultivation, warns.
– If we are not well prepared and do not know how to protect our plants properly, the climate will become our enemy, he says.
Maruzza Cupane heard already during her studies that the island of Sicily was beginning to have favorable conditions for the cultivation of tropical fruits.
Studies in agriculture and forestry at the University of Palermo progressed until his dissertation. The theme of the cupane was tropical fruit.
– I realized that growing tropical fruits could create a profitable business in the long run.
Seven years ago, he decided to make a big investment. Now he walks in rubber boots among the bushy avocado trees and watches his output proudly.
The family farm grows less than ten hectares of mango and avocado trees. The idea is to expand production over time.
Cultivation of new plants has not increased in Sicily just because of climate change. It is also encouraged by the growing sales of tropical fruits.
In Finland, avocados have ended up on the plates in recent years due to a hit recipe for avocado paste, among other things.
In Italy, Statistics Finland ISTAT raised avocado in 2018 (move to another service) national commodity basket, ie the list of popular foods. Even the chefs of a country known for their precise food traditions have adopted tropical fruit.
Avocados are imported to Europe From Latin America and South Africa, and increasingly from southern European countries. In addition to Sicily, farmers in Spain and Portugal have started producing tropical fruit.
Much of Cupane’s mango and avocado harvest also goes to European resellers.
With the sale, the environmental impact of production and ethics have risen to the discussion.
Cupane, which has been cultivated for decades, is well aware that emissions accumulate from agriculture. He says he is doing his best not to aggravate the problem himself, at least.
For example, he cultivates organically without herbicides and is constantly looking for new ways to make more efficient use of rainwater to irrigate plants.
For example, the K-Group decided to stop importing avocados from Chile in 2018 for reasons related to the water footprint.
Professor Farina confirms that The avocado really requires citrus trees for more watering.
– Even in Sicily, fruit can only be grown successfully in coastal areas. Like the hinterland, for example, they do not suffer badly from drought.
According to Farina, however, irrigation can be made more efficient through technology and new practices. Avocado trees can be monitored and water is only given when the plant really needs it, he says.
– Water demand is an issue that the farmer must pay attention to. I do not see that this is any hugely harmful cultivation.
The professor has also recently considered other sustainability issues. For him, Europe’s own food production is proving even more important now that the Russian invasion war in Ukraine and its aftermath is forcing us to think of new ways to produce food.
For example, dependence on production outside the continent is impossible to solve in the blink of an eye, he says.
– But utilizing crops and food that are less familiar to us in a new way will be even more important in the future.
Also Maruzza Cupane has considered the sustainability of food production.
In Finland, for example, do avocados have to be available in shops all year round if they were not even originally part of the northern diet? There can be many opinions on this.
– But we live in a world where commodities move and avocados must also be brought to Finland. Perhaps it is better for the planet that they come from one side of Europe than from the other side of the world.
Would you yourself be willing to buy only avocados and other tropical fruits grown in Europe, even if they are more expensive than those produced further away? You can discuss this topic until Monday, April 18 at 11 p.m.