Finely cut it, add salt, pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and taste. Follow the example of Italians. Fall for the crunch. Party with fennel. This vegetable is a singularity of the peninsula. The homeland of Pasta, pizza and mozzarella produces 85 % of the world volumes in Finocchio alone. A specificity that has not escaped the vigilance of French Vilmorin, world number one in vegetable seeds, activity which weighs 700 million euros.
“On a vegetable seed market estimated in Italy at 235 million euros, fennel represents 17 million euros”, underlines Emmanuel Berthe, general manager of HM.Clause Italy, a subsidiary of Vilmorin. If the white bulb is largely distant by the overwhelming tomato, he says melon and zucchini, other stars of the Italian plate. The seed chart has therefore developed hybrid seeds for this plant, which make the plant sterile.
The stake is twofold: having bulbs of homogeneous size, appearance and maturity. But also, produce it all year round. Arguments that hit the bull’s eye with large distribution, eager to offer, on the shelves, fruits and vegetables whatever the season. Be careful however, not to disappoint the consumer. The creators of varieties have drawn up the ideal portrait of the bulb: “500 grams, white appearance, shiny, slightly soft flavor, crunchy under the tooth”. Beware of those who do not have this pedigree. They may end up on French stalls.
a nomadic culture
This is in any case the choice of the family business Paolillo, located in Campania, which collects, sorts and markets each year nearly 16,000 tonnes of fennel. If it exports to France, Germany, the United Kingdom and, more and more, to the Eastern countries, the top of the basket is reserved for Italians, enlightened amateurs.
To satisfy an endless hunger for fresh products by freeing itself from the calendar, the cultivation of fennel, yet in the ground, is nomadic. In summer, to escape the heat, he leaves on the heights and is rooted in the fucine in the heart of the Abruzzo. Then, he went back down to Campania, before looking for the heat when the mercury goes down. The fennel goes through the Puglia. And ends the cycle in Calabria.
Despite its specificity, fennel does not escape the harsh laws of supply and demand. In 2021, he experienced an unprecedented crisis of overproduction. “The price of fennel fell to 1 euro per kilo. Result, this year, farmers preferred to sow durum wheat, whose course is at the highest. And the planted areas of this vegetable have been reduced by 30 %”, says Mr. Berthe. Less cracked fennel under the tooth, logically the price flew away. He climbed up to 4 euros per kilo at the start of the year, before negotiating around 3 euros. If the price of the white bulb reaches peaks, we are still far from the tulipomania, which shook the Dutch economy in the 18th century e … Fennel is not a tulip.