PRODUCTIVE  AREAS

 SICILY

Citrus-fruits have always found favourable pedoclimatic conditions for their diffusion in Sicily.

Altimetrically, citrus-fruit cultivations can be practised to 600 metres sea level.

The Sicilian citrus-fruit production is mainly concentrated on the seabord plains where there are favourable enviromental conditions such as the pedoclimatic aspects, the supply of irrigation water and the socio-economic conditions.Citrus plantations are rarely in upland terraced areas near seabords.

The Italian citrus-fruit cultivation is characterized by two large productive basins: Calabria and Sicily.

The latter is the most important basin as it produces about 60 % of oranges and 90 % of lemons of the total quantity produced in Italy. But the feature that makes the Sicilian production unique is surely the pigmented-pulp oranges.

In fact, some particular substances, called anthocyanins,pigment the pulp and the juice of Sicilian oranges.In addition to give them more colour and make them very sweet and tasty fruits, anthocyanins give oranges a lot of curative and therapeutical properties.

Even though orange cultivation is practised throughout Sicily, there is a major concentration in the provinces of Catania (the plain and the inland of Catania), Siracusa (the inner zone at the border with the provinceof Catania )and Enna (the south-eastern part of the province). In these areas, the most practised cultivars are the pigmented ones (Moro, Tarocco and Sanguinello ).

The areas cultivated with the pigmented cultivars represent the 70 % of the total . The cultivar "Tarocco" is the most diffused , with an area of 44 thousand hectares. The yellow-pulp cultivars  (Biondo, W. Navel, Navelina, Valencia and Ovale ) are more uniformly diffused on the Sicilian territory even though their exent is altogether inferior (30% of the total cultivated area ).

The major area cultivated with yellow-pulp oranges is the province of Agrigento where the W. Navel cultivar finds its ideal climate and where its qualitative features are best expressed.

Sicily is also the first region for the mandarin cultivation with the 65 % of the cultivated areas. Economically ,the Tardivo of Ciaculli and the Avana of Palermo represent the most important cultivars and are diffused in the provinces of Catania and Palermo.

Besides Sicily has the 25 % of the national area cultivated with clementines, mainly situated along the eastern (Catania ) and the southern (Ragusa and Siracusa ) coast.

Sicily is the leader region in the lemon cultivation with an area of 34 hectares. The most cultivated lemon cultivars are : the Monachello, the Femminello and the Interdonato. They are mainly practised in Siracusa, Catania, Palermo and Messina.

The cultivar "Tarocco" is the most esteemed among the blood-pulp or pigmented oranges. A recently known cultivar ( about at the beginning of this century ), it has rapidly spread  and has become one of the most cultivated cultivar. Its original zone is Pedagaggi of Carlentini (Siracusa)from where it has spread in other parts of the same zone ( Lentini and Francofonte )and in many other citrus-fruit cultivated areas of Catania among which Scordia.

The oranges produced in Scordia are very famous for their sweetness, size , juiciness and aroma and are in great demand both in Italy and abroad.  

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