Peaches were key to Italy’s first fruit-growing boom, in the 1930s. Due to the fascist regime’s limited international trade, new cultivars needed to be selected. Among these was the Dessiè peach, named after the city in what was then Abyssinia, now Ethiopia. The Dessiè peach has greenish-white skin with some pink streaks and white flesh, very sweet and juicy with an intense scent and aromatic flavor.
The tree grows vigorously and has a broad crown. The peaches ripen towards the middle of July. Very sensitive to touch, the variety is not very storable, and not suitable for transport. For this reason, it is mainly consumed fresh.
Known in the past also in Piedmont, today it is only sporadically cultivated in the Savona area of Liguria. The variety is kept in some nurseries, but is rarely found in the province’s fruit production areas.
Back to the archive >
