The Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio is famously credited with describing the view from the boardwalk of Reggio Calabria, where the Mediterranean and Ionian seas meet, as “the most beautiful in Italy”.
But in addition to its magnificent views, the combination of the seas and the unique micro-climate created by the Apennine mountain range provide a magnificent setting for the citrus fruit bergamot.
Grown almost exclusively on a 90-kilometer strip of the Ionian coast, the toe of Italy's boot, for centuries the fruit's essential oil has been a valuable ingredient in perfumes, luxury cosmetics and even Earle Gray tea , sought after for its complex, citrusy. high note in perfumery and the ability to put scents on the skin.
“It is a miracle of nature,” said Ezio Pizzi, president of the Bergamot Consortium, which in 2001 received the famous DOP status, “Protected Designation of Origin” from the European Union for the essential oil.
“To think that this plant was brought from Sicily and planted here, 15 kilometers away, in this amazing microclimate that has given it amazing properties.”
Over time, Calabrians discovered the many benefits of the oil extracted from the skin of the fruit picked while it was still green – from repelling mosquitoes and flies to being a de- powerful infections and increases the longevity and spread of fragrance.
In the late 1960s, however, the invention of synthetic oil caused the value of natural bergamot to decline, forcing landowners to cut down their trees. For almost 25 years, bergamot cultivation ceased in the region.
Then, in the early 90s, the rise of organic products sparked renewed interest, especially from French perfumers. Pizzi, a member of one of the few land-owning families that did not destroy their orchards, pulled together a group of producers and launched essential oil production, forming a consortium.
“We managed to double the price from 18 cents a liter to 36 in the first year,” he said. “Now we get as much as a euro a litre.”
Today, says Pizzi, the DOP region in Calabria produces 80 percent of the world's bergamot.
However, until just over ten years ago, the flesh of the fruit was set aside – mostly fed to animals.
Precious juice once demonized
“I grew up with my mother telling me that if I ate bergamot, my hands would fall off,” said Vittorio Caminiti, local historian and founder of the small, domestic Bergamot National Museum., located up a flight of stairs off a side street in Reggio Calabria.
Criminiti says that wealthy landowners demonized the juice of the fruit, calling it poisonous to prevent local peasants from consuming it, thus ensuring that bergamot harvesting remained only in their control for oil extraction. Before entrepreneurship, he says it took 400 bergamots to make just one liter of oil.
“If someone died? They had eaten bergamot. If a woman was pregnant? She would eat bergamot. Any illness would be blamed on bergamot,” he said. “There were too many trees to watch, so instead of arresting or beating people for eating them, they created a legend.”
In the mid-1990s, Caminiti began experimenting with the juice, finally realizing that he had to wait for the bergamot to grow up so that it was orange to eat or drink. He entered a cake he made with bergamot juice into a competition and took home the top prize.
The culinary media in Italy picked up the story, expressing anger or disbelief.
“I would give them bergamot recipes, then they would call the head of the bergamot consortium, who told them I was crazy,” he said.
Health benefits
Soon after, the first scientific studies were carried out in Italy, showing that bergamot juice reduces blood pressure and cholesterol, and later ones showing potential to manage diabetes.
The discovery of the juice's health benefits has drawn new producers into the market, such as Fabio Trunfio, 50, who operates the Patea Bergamot Agricultural Company, a 20-minute drive from the Pizzi groves.
Trunfio entered the bergamot oil market in 2007, expanding production to include juice and fruit sales in 2010.
Frustrated, however, by what he says has been the failure of the Pizzi Bergamot Consortium to actively promote the juice, he and other producers have launched an appeal for their individual claim itself from the EU, a Protected Geographical Indication (IGP).
Like DOP, IGP focuses on the regional reputation of the product, but offers more flexibility in ensuring authenticity.
Trunfio and his group are also petitioning for IGP certification.
“As soon as we get our IGP, we will be able to go out and publish the wonderful properties of the juice from Calabrian bergamot,” said Trunfio, “and finally we will get a government certificate confirming the cholesterol-lowering properties of the juice bergamot.”
The head of the DOP coalition, Ezio Pizzi, however, opposes the plan of Trunfio and others for IGP – trying to control the product through the more exclusive DOP, which he say that is worthy of it. He complains that new growers in the area are flooding the market, driving prices – already hit when sales of duty-free perfumes stopped during the pandemic – even lower.
As Calabria's bergamot producers struggle to control their brand, the bigger issue of climate change comes to the fore. Throughout Italy, concerns are growing about the fragility of monoculture farming, which is evident in everything from vineyards to vineyards. olive groves.
But extreme summer temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns have been particularly hard on citrus growers in southern Italy. Last summer, extreme heat and drought in Sicily turned oranges and lemons into hard, peeling nuts, with yields falling by as much as 40 percent.
For now, Calabria whiskey has been enough to make up for the lack of water, and only a small part of the fruit suffers from heat. But representatives warn that could change.
“Usually we stop watering in September,” said Pizzi. “This year, it's hardly rained and for the first time I can ever remember, we're still having rain in December.
He says he is now in talks with regional politicians about setting up desalination plants or using gray water from sinks, showers or washing machines to use for irrigation.
But if action is not taken soon, Calabria is in danger of watching its hard-earned advantage, once again, slip away.
