With about 7,000 tons of product, Agrintesa is a national and European kaki giant. Yesterday, Oct. 21, 2025, the first “Kaki Day” was held at the headquarters in Faenza, Ravenna, in collaboration with the Alegra Group (composed of the three companies Alegra, Valfrutta Fresco and Brio). Aristide Castellari, president of Agrintesa, began by saying that “my grandfather was among the first to plant persimmons in Faenza (Ravenna) exactly 100 years ago, in 1925. So this is a crop that has characterized Romagna for a century and brought income. Today it is about keeping up with the times in all respects, both agronomic and commercial.”
“This year’s expected production,” explained Cristian Moretti, Agrintesa general manager, “is down 15 percent compared to 2024. It is therefore a rather small decrease for us. The calibers are larger and the quality is also better than last year, which had been a more complicated year. The market, which started about 15 days ago, has shown good quotations, while demand has been a bit weaker and consumption has not been very lively. Since a few days ago, even with the drop in temperatures, consumption has become more dynamic.”
The 7,000 managed tons of kaki (300 hectares the cultivated area) are equally divided between Loto di Romagna and ‘Rojo Brilante’ to which is added an expanding organic share (12 percent) marketed by Brio under the Alce Nero brand. Sixty percent of the volumes remain on the Italian market, consolidating the Alegra Group’s national leadership, while on the export front Switzerland and France, the main destinations for Loto di Romagna, are growing, while Rojo Brilante has an even distribution throughout Europe.
“Persimmons,” began Enrico Bucchi, general manager of Valfrutta Fresco, “are part of our identity, from cultivation to marketing. In recent years we have innovated at every stage, from agronomic management to marketing, because kaki still has wide margins for growth. According to NielsenIQ data, it is the fruit preferred by 12 percent of Italian consumers: we therefore need to build loyalty among those who already appreciate it and, at the same time, involve younger people thanks to practical and versatile varieties such as Rojo Brillante.”
The 2025 campaign marks the startup of two new highly automated processing lines at the Faenza plant, destined to become the hub of the persimmons supply chain. “The new plant is equipped with Unitec’s Apricot Vision 3.0 technology,” Moretti pointed out: a selection system by size and color that, for the first time, is applied to a product as delicate as persimmon. Each fruit undergoes automatic pre-sorting, which also detects any insect damage, before controlled ripening (‘stewing’). In this way we improve product uniformity, optimize processing time, and reduce waste, providing customers and consumers with more uniform packages in color and size and more efficient handling of different types of persimmons.”
The two lines guarantee a processing capacity of 8 tons/hour, with peaks over 100 tons per day. An investment that allows the cooperative to better plan ripening, calibrate batches according to market needs and further enhance a product that is part of the history of the Faenza cooperative. “Automating the sorting and sizing means concentrating in our staff, who have always specialized on persimmons, in the most delicate phase, which is packaging.”
“It is a technology that serves our members and tradition, allowing us to protect and grow a symbolic fruit of our identity, which the Group has been able to innovate and revive, so much so that it has become one of the central references in our basket.”
Source: © FreshPlaza.com / Cristiano Riciputi
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