In the twenties, shortly after persimmon growing began in Italy with specialised farms in the province of Salerno, Campania was already the main cultivation area for this species in Europe. It is a species that adapts well to the temperate-hot climates of the Mediterranean regions. The province of Naples has held the national production record for decades and on Italian markets the product was generally known as the Neapolitan persimmon. In the middle of the last century, however, the surface area and production of the persimmon declined (from 1960 to 1981 production dropped from 450 thousand

quintals to just over 378 thousand) and only at the beginning of the eighties did the trend start to reverse due to the introduction of new varieties and to the wholesomeness of the product, ascribable to the small amount of treatment required.The product is the Tipo persimmon, the most common and widely cultivated variety in Campania. It is of absolute commercial quality as well as having a high and constant production, provides large fruit with a yellow-orange skin, crunchy orange-bronze flesh, an excellent flavour thanks to its high level of sugar and a discreet aptitude to industrial use. It can produce both sharp or ripe fruit, depending on whether or not fertilization has been ensured during flowering by means of the presence of a sufficient number of suitable pollinating plants. The fertilised fruit, edible at the time of harvest but with a high seed content (up to 8), are peculiar to Campania and are used for the vanilla persimmon market, limited by the regional sphere but in continuous expansion. The non-fertilised parthenocarpic fruit must be subjected to natural or artificial overripening (treatment with ethylene) before being eaten and are intended for the much wider market of overripe or stewed fruit. However, this causes a rapid softening of the flesh and reduces the marketing period considerably. The best cultivation area for the Neapolitan persimmon remains the area of origin, including the Flegrea, Acerrana and Vesuvius areas, in the province of Naples, the Maddaloni-Cancelfese area in the province of Caserta and the Nocerino-Paganese in the province of Salerno. An ample production area, quite homogeneous although it is made up of diverse territories, that at present covers about 50% of national production of the fruit, feeding a considerable turnover of which no trace is found, however, in macroeconomic analyses.