Together with the chestnuts and the pomegranates, the typical fruits of the fall are persimmons which come from Diospoyros kaki, a fruit plant from East Asia belonging to the the family of the Ebenecee. The persimmon in Italy was introduced in 1880 and the success was extra-ordinary. Among the firsts to appreciate it was also Giuseppe Verdi who in 1888 wrote a letter where he thanked the person who gifted them.
The first specialized facilities came up in the area of Salerno, in particular in the Agro Nocerino, then extending to Sicily and then in Emilia-Romagna. In Italy the production has stabilized around 65,000 tonnes: the crops are sporadically located all over the country but it is important only in Campania and Emilia-Romagna which on their own represent 90% of the Made In Italy production: the remaining 10% is grown in the other Italian regions.
