Baby Leaf: an italian salad

The temperate climate of Northern Italy makes it difficult to produce adult salads, especially in the winter, when the cold climate reduces the possibility of seeds being able to complete their growth cycle.

The reduced growth times required by baby leaf salads overt this problem and salad can be grown in tunnels all year round.

Northern Italy has a long industrial history that has supported the agricultural sector in the development of specific equipment for the growing of range I and IV salads, from the creation of tunnels to instruments for climate control and irrigation systems, from harvesting machinery to packaging systems.

Thanks to the proximity to companies that manufacture technological machinery, the production of baby leaf salads received a powerful drive and has managed to cover 40% of the agricultural demands in the Lombardy region.

Compared to other parts of Europe, where agriculture is still carried out using traditional methods, Northern Italy has always invested in the training of qualified personnel.

It is currently one of the areas with the highest concentration of agricultural agronomists and technicians for this specific sector, a detail that has allowed companies to recruit personnel who are able to manage the supply chain based on specific methods, the most suitable varieties and the defining of rigorous production cycles.

Italy is the European country that best lends itself to the production of superior quality Baby Leaf salads due to its particular atmospheric and territorial conditions, and also its highly specialised agronomic practices.

Up until the year 2000 the growing of baby leaf salads took place almost exclusively in the North, but today many companies in Lombardy have opened branches in the South of the country to reap the benefits of the Mediterranean temperatures and guarantee constant production throughout the year.