During the Berry Trend 2026 webinar, Carlo Lingua (CEO of RK Growers and President of Berryway) outlined a pragmatic vision focused on the economic sustainability of the supply chain. He highlighted the structural obstacles facing Italian growers and the strategic steps needed to support the sector’s growth.
His position rests on six key points:
Rising production costs and labour challenges
Two of the main obstacles to the development of berries in Italy are high production costs and the difficulty of recruiting and managing skilled workers. Lingua cited his company’s experience: its harvesters come from 20 different countries and often speak neither Italian nor English. This language barrier creates operational inefficiencies and drives up costs.
There are also climate challenges: because of extreme heat, yields from some crops, including raspberries, have fallen by more than 50% despite the same number of plants.
Criticism of entry-level pricing and protection for growers
Lingua criticised the approach taken by many large-scale retailers, which assumes that lowering shelf prices is the only way to increase sales. He described the effect on farmers as a “massacre”: they risk being unable to cover their production costs.
Supporting the supply chain requires fair payment for growers. Without it, producers will abandon these crops.
Overcoming fragmentation through alliances
A longstanding weakness of the Italian model is the fragmentation of growers, who end up competing destructively with one another. Lingua cited cases in which a single supermarket has as many as 11 suppliers for its entry-level range alone.
He argued that growers need to join forces and build strategic supply-chain alliances so they can approach the market with greater scale and coordination.
Varietal innovation and eating quality
The category’s future depends on product quality and eating experience. Consumers should buy fruit because it is flavourful, crisp, aromatic and has an excellent shelf life, rather than simply because it is cheap.
To this end, Berryway has invested heavily in exclusive rights to new premium varieties, including the Eureka, IQ Berries and Sekoya lines. Premium ranges offer healthier margins and continue to grow, accounting for as much as 20% of sales in some retail chains.
Product range and managing unsold stock
While acknowledging the effectiveness of the highly segmented British model, Lingua pointed to the Spanish retailer Mercadona as an example of efficiency: a small number of key pack sizes, such as 250 g and 500 g, combined with a strict selection of varieties and fruit sizes, such as 14–18 mm and 19–21 mm. An excessive proliferation of product lines can leave supermarkets with unsold stock.
Thanks to investment in growing areas in southern Italy, including more than 20 hectares in Sicily, Berryway says it can now supply Italian blueberries from January to September.
Environmental sustainability and biodegradable packaging
Finally, Lingua highlighted the company’s sustainability work, including the development of plastics that biodegrade in soil and are made from agricultural feedstocks, such as sugar, rather than petroleum. The aim is to produce 100% compostable punnets in response to growing demand from international markets.
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