THE ITALIAN FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SECTOR FACES THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1993 EUROPEAN SINGLE MARKET. END OF THE ITALIAN LEADERSHIP

The 1993 European single market is a major challenge for the Italian fruit and vegetable commodity system(1) and particularly for producers.
The interaction of several variables including economic changes (income increase), technological improvements (cold storage), political agreements (the GATT Agreements and the Lomé Convention), socio-cultural trends (changes in consumers’ taste) and distribution systems (the growing power of European large-scale distribution) has led to a situation of saturated world supply facing a stagnant(2) demand.

We have tried to answer the following questions : Is the Italian fruit and vegetable sector -particularly in southern Italy- doomed to regression or is there still an opportunity to reverse the sector’s trend of decline ? Which producing areas are likely to disappear or to decline ?

The results of our analysis show that there is a noticeable north-south dualism in Italy.
Facing a dynamic and successful north, the south appears, on the whole, to be deeply delayed.
This delay cannot be overcome in the short term and nor probably in the medium term.
Therefore, numerous producers and traditional traders could be forced to abandon their activity.

XII International Symposium on Horticultural Economics

D. VARGIU

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1995.340.8