The production of Peaches

Thanks to the countless varieties of peaches cultivated and produced in the world fruit and vegetable sector, it is easy to imagine the competition that exists in the production of peaches among the various countries both of the European Union and of the rest of the world.
At a global level, in fact, the major producer of peaches is China, followed by Italy, Spain, Greece, Chile, France and Argentina.

Italy, which was the second world major producer of peaches in 2011, has esteemed a production of about 700,000 tons of peaches for the fresh consumption, 87,300 tons of percoche and 782,000 tons of nectarines. In spite of the strong international competition, in fact, the Italian cultivation of peaches remains the most important among the western producer countries: peaches, among the fruit and vegetable varieties rank second in Italy according to the quantity produced (the first place goes to the production of apples), but they touch the production of apples as to the trading value, as they concern a wider area, both as to the cultivated surface and to areas for the production of peaches on the entire Italian national territory. In general, drupaceae orchards (including peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots and plums) take up 1.3% (154,900 hectares) of the Italian farming territory, with peaches and nectarines representing alone 93,100 hectares, with the Italian harvesting of peaches that reaches its peak in June and July. The Italian cultivation of peaches, since the second half of the past century, was considered a model for the European, North Afrincan and Middle Eatern countries, that have increasingly tried to compete with Italy in the production of peaches.
Spain, instead, apart from being the third world producer of peaches, nectarines and percoche peaches, is the main exporter of peaches in Europe, thanks to its early harvesting period, compared to the other European countries. In 2011, the production of peaches in Spain increased up to 1.126 million tons of peaches produced, while in Greece, Italy and France, there were decreases in the total production.
In fact, just in 2011, the European fruit and vegetable market of peaches and of nectarines, was strongly hit by an overproduction compared to the demand, with reduced quotations to the 42 and 53%, according to the type of product: this unfortunately hit the producers of peaches, the retailers of peaches, the wholesalers of peaches, the importers of peaches, the exporters of peaches and all those people that trade in the sector of the cultivation of peaches. This happened because the prices paid to producers of peaches did not cover the costs of the harvesting, and even forced producers of peaches to destroy part of the production or not to harvest the cultivated peaches, with very high waste.
Strongly concentrated, the market of the exports of peaches is controlled by five global actors: Italy, Spain, the Usa, Chile and Greece, that compete for a quote of 82% of the volume of production compared to the entire world production of peaches.
Compared to earlier studies done on the fruit and vegetable sector(years 2006- 2010), studying in particular the trend of the production of peaches, the trade of peaches, the import and the export of peaches, the Greece went out of the group of the leader operators in the world exports of peaches, while at the same time France entered.