The Italian food sector is going through a complex phase, characterized by a good export performance but by enormous difficulties in relaunching domestic consumption. This is why, now more than ever, it is essential to look towards new markets. This is what emerges from the latest analyzes by the Fedralimentare study centre, just as the Confindustria Youth Forum is taking place in Savelletri (Brindisi).
Federalimentare forecasts that at the end of 2012 the increase in turnover will be +1,2% per year, ie at a final value for next year of approximately 130 billion euro. In 2012 the volume of exports will register an average annual +8%, while exports in foreign currency will register an average annual rate of +10%. On the domestic consumption front, however, there is no good news: the +0,1% in July indicates a stalemate. Furthermore, according to Filippo Ferrua, “the increase in VAT to 21% on food products will hit Italian families with an increase in spending of over 600 million euros and risks compromising any prospects for a revival in consumption, with a strong impact on activities of the agri-food chain, from agriculture to industry to distribution".
Without forgetting that, globally, the food market is going through a difficult phase. In the 2006-08 period, food companies had shown a compound annual growth rate of +10,9 percent, for a total value that in 2008 had reached 2.840 billion dollars. Estimates for 2011 instead set the global value of the food market at 3.064 billion dollars, closing a difficult four-year period which saw the sector grow by only +2,6% per year. A similar trend was also strongly conditioned by the reconfiguration of the typical consumer. Made in Italy will therefore have to be able to recalibrate itself according to these changes and, as a study by Saatchi & Saatchi has underlined, will have to address above all emerging markets such as the East and South America. The new challenge comes from emerging markets.
