INDUSTRIAL QUALITY AS INFLUENCED BY CROP MANAGEMENT

• new genetic material has been proposed in order to increase productivity and to improve mechanical harvesting and resistance to pests;
• the dillusion and improvement of techniques and equipment for operations of seedling, transplanting, irrigation, and harvesting have determined the need to adapt the various models to different climatic, pedological and economic conditions;
• the productive world has been faced with new market requirements which, in turn, have led to product innovations and, consequently, to the demand for agricultural raw materials with specific characteristics.

In addition, from an economic and commercial point of view, the introduction and diffusion of processing tomatoes in non-traditional geographical areas has determined a new form of competition based on both economic and qualitative factors.

Good harvests and fluctuations in demand, the latter often conditioned by unforeseable world events (such as the Gulf crisis and the establishment of foreign trade relations with East European countries, only to mention the most recent and striking ones) affect the quality and the price of industrial products so that sometimes preference is given to a particular producer rather than another and sometimes in an irrational way.

Regarding Southern European tomato processing countries and, in particular, Italy it must be noted that however strongly the productive world is conditioned by the system of subsidizing productions that have fixed limits, there is a tendency to exceed these limits especially for products which can be marketed at higher prices (diced, frozen or strained tomatoes, pulps) but which must have pre-determined qualitative characteristics.

Countries with high-production costs have the tendency to turn - once released from cost-linked competition - to less traditional products requested by more mature and demanding markets.

The USA is an exception to this trend since the production is destined for domestic consumption.

Industrial requirements will necessarily be linked to the suitability of obtaining quality products at a reasonable cost from the raw material used. This is true especially for traditional products, particularly tomato paste, because of the inevitable elimination of countries with high agricultural and industrial costs if the competition is based solely on the selling price.

This tendency must be considered carefully by the agricultural sector (including breeding research, agricultural experiments and production) to be able to provide adequate responses by supplying products that are in line with its needs.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files)