The mango is a tropical and subtropical plant, even though its fruit is now a natural part of the range in European supermarkets. It is important to remember this origin so that what is happening in Italy is clear. Farmers are now growing mangoes in their fields in the south, in Sicily and in Puglia and Calabria, with rapid growth. So far, the fruit has mostly been flown in from Asia, especially India. It has been native there for thousands of years and is even documented in tradition as a jelly.
The mango first came to Europe in the 16th century, on board Portuguese Indian sailors. The “manga” was first mentioned in this country in a report by the Italian explorer and travel writer Ludovico Varthema, who died in Rome in 1517. But it is only in the current generation that it is becoming an everyday fruit in Europe. Recently, Italian farmers have discovered mangoes as a profitable business model. The fruit is large, heavy, expensive and is eaten with pleasure. You can generate oil from it or use it as a medicinal plant. And when it comes to the carbon footprint, shorter routes without flights are of course better.
The cultivated area has more than doubled since 2019
But the triumph of the mango in Europe also has to do with climate change, and that’s not a good sign: It’s just getting warmer in the north, even if many people in Italy, including those in government, don’t see that as a problem. Agriculture is the sector of the economy that is suffering more than any other from the consequences of climate change and needs to adapt. At the beginning of the autumn harvest season, the Italian lobby association Coldiretti reported a rapid increase in mango cultivation. This year, 1200 hectares are already being cultivated, in 2019 it was less than half, in 2004 there was practically nothing.
The farmers not only offer mangoes, but also other previously exotic fruits, such as bananas, avocados, passion fruit and lychees. They follow traditional crops, which in turn migrate further north. The olive tree, for example, has already reached the edge of the Alps. According to Coldiretti, the last northern limit of olive oil production is currently in the province of Sondrio, just before Switzerland.
However, in Apulia you can see that someone else is migrating north: the brutal end for this long-lived crop. No cure for the disease has yet been found, and anyone driving through southern Apulia can be gripped by horror: withered trunks stretch into the sky for square kilometers – a problem that is known in science and politics, but is not being combated with any vigor. This is how the bacterium moves, about ten kilometers per year. It has now been detected around Bari and has halved Apulia’s harvest revenue.