BETWEEN LOCAL AND GLOBAL: A GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF ITALIAN AGRO-FOOD SYSTEM OF INNOVATION

Prof. Graziella Ferrara

Abstract: The agro-food is one of the main manufacturing industries in Italy. It accounts for more than 2 million firms, making up 9% of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP). However, Italian agro-food industry has several weak points such as small dimension of firms, county’s dependence on agricultural products realized abroad and weak innovative activities. Based on these assumptions, this paper offers a geographical analysis of Italian agro-food system of innovation aimed to evidence actions that firms and policy-makers have to realize. Specifically the paper evidences that firms have to invest in internationalization and innovation and policy-makers have to support them in several ways.

Keywords: economic geography, agro-food, innovation, Italy, world, Made in Italy

Date published: 2017-02-22