An unrecognizable Easter

Easter is coming, but this year will inevitably be different from the usual: for starters, no Easter lunch at the restaurant. And the traditional egg hunt will be held strictly within the home or in private gardens. But that’s not all. Easter this year will be different also for those in Ticino who deal with breeding, production, sale and distribution of typical products of this period: goat and colombe cakes, as well as eggs and chocolate bunnies.

An improvement

Let’s start with the traditional goat. Whose dreaded meager sales didn’t happen. “Thanks are due to the restaurants, which, thanks to home delivery, allow you to enjoy traditional dishes, and also to the consumers of Ticino who, after the great awareness made in recent weeks, have gone to the farmers, supporting the region and choosing to serve quality products on the table,“ says Sibilla Quadri, director of the Ticino Centre for Agricultural and Food Competence (CCAT). The farmers, no longer having important sales outlets in catering, canteens, the hotel sector and without markets, were left with livestock that would have risked not being sold. As explained to us by the agricultural secretary of the Ticino farmers’ union, Sem Genini, with the closure of the catering activities, the goats are now sold “to countless private individuals, local butchers and the Society of Master butchers and Terrani SA, who have made themselves available to stock a large quantity.”

The situation, then, seems to be good. Even the farm La Ghironda in Lavertezzo, in the Verzasca Valley, confirms this. “How’s it going this year?” Well, we certainly can’t complain”, says Gabriele Giottonini, owner of the company together with his wife, Mariapia. “We have a loyal clientele, private individuals who come regularly every year to buy our goats. We are in a privileged situation: we do this hard job by choice, by affinity with the nature that surrounds us. And we’ve always been there, even in normal times, where maybe most people don’t ask the question, ‘Where does the food on my plate come from?’ In this situation, with the more than justified fear of the virus, people have become aware. They have discovered, again, that food is a prime commodity. And that it is not obvious to have it on the table, especially in times of crisis such as the one we are experiencing. That’s why our local farmers are important: they have a link with the territory, they create a product using what is found in Ticino.”

“It’s a drama for us”

As for the dessert symbol of Easter, the colomba, the current situation is much less rosy. “It’s a drama for us,“ says Massimo Turuani, president of the Society of master bakers, confectioners and confectioners. “Our industry has reduced its activity by 70%. Those who managed to maintain 30% of production saved a lot.” The balance drawn up by Turuani is very tough: with the closure of the restaurant business, it is as if the main mast of a ship had fallen. “Most of our products were sold to restaurants, hotels and canteens. The sale to private individuals is not enough to cover the losses.” Not to mention, continues our interviewee, that the increased hygienic standards and social distancing imposed upon entry into the shops (”those that remain open,“ Turuani points out) of one person at a time. “This means that in one day not even 30% of regular customers come in.” A scenario of blood and tears that not even online sales are able to mitigate. “Customers are used to buying colombe from their trusted confectioner. With waiting times and long lines outside shops, many of them will decide to resort to large-scale distribution, accentuating the difficulties faced by the artisans.” In short, the coronavirus has struck a huge blow “to an already bleeding sector” and the fear expressed by Turuani is that many shops, after the crisis, may not reopen. Particularly impressed, he concludes, is the training of apprentices, “which for the most part is provided by the craft workshops.”

Cocoa... Will it arrive?

Some apprehension is also experienced by those who produce chocolate. “All the Easter products have already been prepared and were delivered before the health crisis,“ explains Alessandra Alberti, director of Chocolat Stella, in Giubiasco. “We’ll see how much the retail chains have sold by Easter.” After Christmas, the Easter holiday is the second most important of the year for the company. “This year, between the unsold chocolate in our stores, which we had to close, and that what will return unsold, a lot of goods will remain,“ says Alberti. Additionally, for chocolate producers, the decline in demand from the tourism sector (hotels and restaurants) is considerable. In some cases, Alberti explains, the requests of private individuals have been met who, although perhaps this year will not give many eggs and bunnies, did not want to give up enjoying them at home. The company has organised ad hoc deliveries for these customers. But the crisis also puts pressure on importers of ingredients which, in the case of chocolate, often come from distant areas. Like cocoa. The countries that produce it have only recently started the Covid-19 marathon. The director of Chocolat Stella expects there will be new problems.