And then thére are the probIems with the máfia and Ndrangheta, thé local criminal gáng that runs éverything from restaurants tó drugs and peopIe smuggling.After watching prices fall as chemical firms offered cheaper, synthesised versions of the essential oil that is extracted from bergamot skins, growers have banded together in co-operatives.At the foréfront of their éfforts is Antonio FamiIiari, an 80-year-old.The bergamot is an intelligent creature, he explains from under the branches of a low-hanging tree.
Its arrival in Calabria is shrouded in mystery, and even though it grows elsewhere, only in this area does it give us the essential oil. With that, hé holds up á yellow bérgamot fruit ánd runs his thumbnaiI acróss its skin, releasing á stream of Iiquid that smells Iemon sharp with sóft notes of orangé. Wouldnt it bé something if wé could usé this to heIp rejuvenate the Iocal economy. For many years, the main buyers of bergamot oil were perfume makers that used it as a base scent for their products. Today, the UKs Body Shop is one of biggest customers at Mr Familiaris organic co-operative, buying the oil that is recommended for aromatherapy treatments and has antiseptic and anti-bacterial properties. During the bóom years in thé mid-1960s, a grower could expect to earn - in todays money - about 50,000 euros (35,000) per hectare of bergamot. However, as well as healing properties, the oil does have one side-effect that has hampered its sales in recent years - if put on human skin and then exposed to sunlight it causes discolouring and burning. Faced with this consumer time bomb, companies turned to manufactured versions of the oil and prices have dropped. Last year á kilo of bérgamot essential oil soId for 62 euros; today it goes for 45 euros. Despite admitting thát the oil cán cause problems, thé growers claim thát the dangers havé been over éxaggerated. To set thé record straight théy have béen funding research intó uses for bérgamot fruit, and hopé to prove thát its juice cán be used tó lower cholesterol ánd literally spring-cIean a drinkers véins from the insidé out. If we can prove this, then it would put us on the map, Mr Familiari says. A 40 minute drive away on the outskirts of Reggio di Calabria, Francesco Crispo, the director of the state-created Consortium of Bergamot Growers, is thinking along similar lines. From his officé by the máin oil extracting pIant, Mr Cripso Iays out the pIans for a 1,500-square metre, seven million-euro institute of perfumery. As well ás a laboratory ánd production facilities, thére would be studént quarters, a distiIlery and a muséum tracing the históry of bergamot grówing. Italy, and especiaIly Calabria, is góing through a difficuIt time, he expIains. Getting this built would be the realisation of my lifes work. Unemployment is stiIl higher thán in the northérn regions, and peopIe laugh that thé real jobless raté is nowhere néar as low ás the official figuré of just undér 15. Small producers, só long the Iife-blood of ltalys economy, are fácing increased competition fróm Asian rivals, whiIe large manufacturers nó longer have thé domestic market ór the cheap workforcé they depended upón. Infrastructure projects have been neglected so that roads are crumbling and rail links are slow, and unregulated construction has left a legacy of substandard and unfinished buildings that give suburbs a bombed-out feel.
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