If the gross domestic product stagnates, the same cannot be said of the Italian food industry, which grew by 2018% in 3,1 and will do the same, according to estimates by the Ceresio Investors banking group and the University of Gastronomic Sciences (Unisg), in the two-year period 2019-2020. It is what emerges from Food Industry Monitor, one of the reference observers on the performance of Italian companies in the agri-food sector, which X-rayed a sample of 823 companies active in 15 sectors (from food to alcohol, from water to packaging) which together have a turnover of 63 billion euros.
The study notes that the countertrend of the agri-food sector with respect to the national economy is nothing new: even in the worst years of the crisis, with GDP in negative territory, Food revenues have never fallen below the threshold of +2% annual growth, reaching +7% in 2011 and almost +4% in 2015. Since 2014, commercial profitability has also been constantly above 6% and will also be so in the two-year period 2019-2020, while that calculated on the return on invested capital (ROIC) will exceed the 10% threshold in recent years, a value worthy only of other champions of Made in Italy such as mechanics and clothing.
But beyond the financial data, the Food Industry Monitor is also able to identify the best sectors in recent years, those that have grown the most over the long term: from 2009 to 2018 they appear to be essential foods such as flour, frozen foods, coffee, oil and wine, while the weakest sectors were sweets and beer. As regards the sustainability of growth (the index is calculated also considering the debt rate), the champion of financial solidity is coffee.
The companies analysed they produce 98% in Italy and export an average of 34%, even if a third of them realize half of their turnover abroad, through exports. 70% are family businesses, only 3% are listed on the stock exchange and only 7% are controlled by a foreign shareholder, just as 7% are cooperatives.
