The rural world is in turmoil and Sardinian farmers are on a war footing . Several sectors are "exhausted with production and energy costs that are forcing farms to close." Coldiretti Sardegna starts the mobilization and calls the fruit and vegetable, cereal, wine, beekeeping and land reclamation consortia sectors together, calling a meeting at the Cagliari Fair for next Monday, 10 October at 10.45 . The sector is exhausted, they argue from via Sassari, with production and energy costs that are forcing many farms to close.

If all goes well, you work in a balance

"When all goes well, we work in balance with diseases and calamities lurking like a sword of Damocles that irremediably lead to red tape, with the bureaucracy of the refreshments that at that point would give the final blow of grace producing only cards and illusions".

The increases in production costs not followed by those for the sale of the finished product risk closing many companies.

Orchards: costs increased by 60%

According to the data of the trade organization, producing one hectare of an orchard or vegetable garden is now prohibitive with costs increased by an average of 60–70%. “To keep costs down is the labor, usually familiar, otherwise we would have to leave the land uncultivated”, explains Luigi Podda, fruit grower of San Sperate .

Tomato: expenses equal to receipts

Same tone for Barisardo for tomatoes: “Today, producing tomatoes in greenhouses is not convenient. If all goes well, you break even with working conditions that are at the limit of possible, then if, as often happens, you run into illnesses then you are at a loss ” denounces Alessandro Melis .

Even “for the tomato in the open field for industry the costs are on average 10 thousand euros per hectare to collect 10 thousand euros for the finished product” says Giuseppe Onnis of Samassi .

Artichokes

Some margin remains for artichokes where production costs have increased beyond belief with various factors to be taken into consideration but with a premise: "If the land does not fall within the Reclamation Consortium that allows you to reduce water costs, it is not convenient cultivate it. Water is essential for the artichoke and if I had to use the pumps, the costs would be unsustainable ”.

Bees and vineyards without support

The same problems also apply to other sectors such as beekeeping, fundamental but forgotten, or wine, a Sardinian excellence but which does not have the support of the institutions and now finds itself fighting with very high production costs after the pandemic (the harvest according to Coldiretti estimates costs + 35%).

Cereals, earnings to the limit

For cereal growers, the accounts do not change. "Growing a hectare of wheat costs around 1200-1300 euros with similar earnings but with the unknown factor of a grain price exposed to speculation and therefore uncontrollable" is the bitter analysis of Salvatore Pau di Sanluri, mocked together with his colleagues by the measure on supply chains with insufficient funds to cover applications, less and less among other things given that many give up the cultivation of wheat. Yet the war in Ukraine made us understand how important this product is and how important it is to produce it at home ”.

Not only "we are considered as second-class farmers by the State and the Region - is the complaint -, we feel abandoned because for us or there are no interventions, or if funds are allocated for relief for natural disasters, high prices or other, these apart from the papers and the illusions never arrive: there are 50 million still. We are still waiting for those for the 2017 drought and five years have passed, as well as the 20 million promised for the expensive prices that will have to be included in the Omnibus ".

Water, even the reclamation consortia are on the brink

The assembly will also be attended by the Reclamation Consortia suffocated by the costs of energy and on the brink of the region due to the chronic delays in the supply.

"We cannot passively witness the abandonment of lands and the disappearance of excellence symbols of our agri-food heritage and with them the closure of many companies - says Battista Cualbu, president of Coldiretti Sardinia who will be in Cagliari on Monday with the regional leaders of the organization and farmers -. It is paradoxical that at a time when the war has put before our eyes the weakness of those who depend on foreign countries and on food imports, we risk losing farmers. On Monday, in addition to analyzing the sectors, we will present the class action for the lack of refreshments , in particular due to the 2017 drought ".

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