Pachino tomatoes, we're killing them. And supermarkets are flooded with African varieties.

After oil and oranges, Italian-made cherry tomatoes are also collapsing. They arrive from Tunisia and Cameroon at rock-bottom prices. And Sicilian cherry tomatoes remain on the trees: it's not even worth picking.

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Pachino tomatoes made in Italy

PACHINO TOMATO MADE IN ITALY

After the oil and the oranges, now it's the turn of the Pachino tomatoesWe are killing, in general indifference, a typical product of theagriculture made in Italy, a true excellence of our land, among other things protected by the usual IGP brands. What happens? As in the case ofoil and oranges, our farmers can't cope with the competition from African countries, from Cameroon to Morocco via Tunisia, which flood our supermarkets with their "cherry tomatoes." Grown at starvation wages, less than 5 euros an hour for the farmers, and with abundant use of chemicals to plump them.

Pachino tomatoes made in Italy 2

ALSO READ: Tunisian, Spanish, and Greek olive oil: this is how we're killing Italian oil. 2016 will be a bad year.

AFRICAN TOMATOES FOR SALE IN ITALY

These African countries, with the usual green light from the European Union, where we count for less than zero when it comes to defending our agriculture, manage to sell their Pachino tomatoes at a price between 0,30 and 0,60 cents per kilo. Enough for large-scale retailers to place them on the shelves with a price tag of 1,30-1,50 euros per kilo.

Meanwhile, Italian farmers cannot withstand the deadly impact of this unfair competition. For them, a kilo of Pachino tomatoes costs no less than 1 euro. Aside from labor, there's the plastic to assemble the greenhouses, the hooks for growing, and all the various accessories.

At this point, the Africans have won the game. Their cherry tomatoes are invading the large supermarkets, often controlled by foreigners who have no interest in defending Made in Italy, while Sicilian farmers are forced to let the original Pachino tomatoes rot on their plants.

TO KNOW MORE: China is served, as Chinese fruits and vegetables knock out our products

PACHINO IMPORTS FROM AFRICA

But couldn't we, for example, give a hand to Italian farmers by making sure that large-scale Italian distribution (from Coop to Conad) is forced to take only Pachino made in Sicilia? And couldn't it be done at EU level? reduce import quotas of African products? In short: is there anyone in Italy who still wants to defend our country's farmers and products?

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UNMISSABLE RECIPES WITH CHERRY TOMATOES:

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