The Phoenician Root

Production of charcoal in Calabria (Italy). "I've always done this job, it's in my blood, it's beautiful, I live in the open air, I breathe freedom." Cosimo Scrivo (Coal producer) tells us

The Phoenician Root

Production of charcoal in Calabria.
"I've always done this job, it's in my blood, it's beautiful, I live in the open air, I breathe freedom." Cosimo Scrivo (Coal producer) tells us

In Serra San Bruno (Italy), a town of seven thousand inhabitants, one of the oldest jobs in the world survives: the production of charcoal. In this place the technique of coal production dates back to the Phoenicians (VIII and VII century BC) and has remained unchanged for thousands of years. A tradition handed down verbally from father to son, a tiring job that until the 1990s involved dozens of families in the Calabrian territory, but which today only affects 8 families.
The production of charcoal is one of the last active sectors of industrial archeology of which the territory of Serra San Bruno is the protagonist. Traveling in the woods of Serra, it is possible to spot the smoking "scarazzi", sheaves of stacked wood and covered with wet straw and earth. The work of the Coal producer is, much sacrificed, relentlessly and without temporal knowledge, so much so as to require a night shift involving the whole family. From the creation of the "scarazzu", thirty long days pass before the coal can reach, in sacks, the most distant destinations.
Today, around the mountains of Serra, the few sites that produce charcoal remain to bear witness to an activity that is being lost but which has been an important point of reference for the local economy for centuries. Italy, like most industrialized countries, imports a quota of 60,000 tons, unable to internally produce the quantity of charcoal to meet the demand. The use and purchase of this product in Italy is significant and has interesting features. From a market survey conducted by PEFC Italy, 45% of the products evaluated by customers have a value per kg of less than 2 euros and the characteristics most considered focus on ease of ignition, the volume of the package and the low quantity. of dust produced. In Serra San Bruno, coal per kg is more expensive, it can be found from 3.5 euros upwards, a price justified by the quality of the wood and the care with which it is produced.
Thanks to the purity of the wood coming from uncontaminated forests of beech and larch trees, and to the wisdom of a few men, even today the best natural coal is made in Italy.