Dinamiche competitive dei principali prodotti ittici in Italia: possibili strategie di intervento

Over the last few years, the Italian fishery sector has showed a tendential reduction in the economic performance because of the contraction of the value of the product, as a result of the fall in the catches and in the production average prices of the main species, and of the growing operational costs. Therefore, the contraction of the National supply is balanced by the imports which, in terms of value in the reference period tested in the current study (2003/04 – 2007/08) have grown, causing a further burdening in the absolute value of the Italian trade balance. The outlined background is made further worse by the slowdown, in few years, in the rise in the fishery products consumptions, due to the reduction in the purchasing power of the families and to the competition of the import products. The study, after analysing the structure and the trend of the import-export trade of the main Italian fishery products, quantifies Italy’s competitive advantage in the business with the chief trade partners with the aim to put forward possible intervention strategies oriented to improve Italy’s competitive performances on the international market. The analysis shows how just for some products it is possible to expect a market rise and, in particular, for the fishery resources that our seas are plenty of. The products with a high trade value as shrimps, cuttlefish, squids and red tunas, since they are overexploited resources, can be, only within certain limits, object of strategies of penetration in the market. For other products instead, as sardines, it’s possible to formulate some intervention strategies oriented to a higher sensitization of the consumers about the nutritional proprieties of the sardines, anchovies etc., and of the local catch in particular, helping, indirectly, to reduce the foreign supplies. In this background, the certification of the product, the assignation of quality trademarks, but above all an effective information of the healthy characteristics of the catch, are effective strategies to improve Italy’s competitive position in the International market.