Sardinian wheat at risk of extinction with producers who are already in crisis .

This is the alarm raised by Coldiretti Sardinia , according to which the 2023 campaign already presents a critical situation , with skyrocketing production costs and payments to farmers , so far kept hidden, which remain well below production costs .

THE DATA – According to estimates by Coldiretti, the production costs in detail are between 1,100 and 1,200 euros per hectare , also considering fertilizers and diesel at all-time highs. To all this is added a remuneration that remains very low , around 30 euros per quintal (if the quality of the wheat remains high). With a yield of 30 quintals per hectare (on average), therefore, and in the face of costs of 1,200 euros, the revenue reaches 900 euros , a figure that leads Sardinian cereal growers to lose about 300 euros per quintal , which translated regional means lower revenues by tens of millions of euros.

THE NUMBERS - In this panorama, according to a Coldiretti Sardinia elaboration on Istat data, in 2022 the areas cultivated in Sardinia on durum wheat reached 29,200 hectares with a production of 693 thousand quintals . On a national basis, the South and the Islands (therefore including Sardinia) lead with 75% of the share of cultivated areas and 65% of national production (Elaboration on Ismea data). Furthermore, in the 2021-22 campaign, the average price of durum wheat grain , on a national basis, reached 473 euros per ton, up by 73.5% compared to 2020-21 .

INCREASING IMPORTS – The island's production continues to deal with increasingly high imports . Also on the basis of a Coldiretti Sardinia survey in 2023 , 500 thousand tons of grains including wheat, corn and barley landed in Sardinian ports (the greatest transit through the port of Oristano, 470 thousand tons) and , including soybeans and legumes. The major provenance of vessels carrying this type of product came mostly from France, followed by Canada and Ukraine.