According to a recent SACE focus, Italian exports of food products continue to grow, reaching 21 billion euros in 2015. And, alongside the sale of food products, there are processing machinery. Last year alone, Italy exported machinery worth over 3 billion, against a growth of 6,3% which is very close to the rate at which food produced with these has grown (+6,8%). These are specific machines with a rather limited use, which represent a modest share of the total Italian mechanical engineering in the world (about 4%). In this context, food processing machinery was among the fastest growing, more than double compared to the total of instrumental mechanics in the last year (+2,7%).
Of the 21 billion of food goods exported in 2015, half concerned only three products: pasta, wine and cheese, whose sub-funds outperformed their French and German competitors. A completely different story for the USA, where competitors' sales have grown at a rapid pace, gaining market shares, even if exported values continue to be reduced. A particular case concerns pasta, in which Italy continues to be the world's leading producer and exporter, keeping China, Türkiye, Thailand and the USA at a distance. At the same time, Italian exports of machinery for the production of cheese, pasta and wine are more solid than their German and French competitors. If in recent years the growth trends of food and related machinery have followed different trends, it is nevertheless important to note how, from a systemic point of view, the trend abroad of some can signal development opportunities for others and vice versa.
According to analysts, the development of Made in Italy food products in the outlet markets does not only pass through greater promotion of the products themselves, through traditional and non-traditional distribution channels, and pursuing production, commercial and distribution strategies adapted to the specificities of the outlet markets: it could also be valorised precisely through the driving force of the machinery sector. A greater possibility of exporting machines for processing the food product can in fact signal a greater demand for the product on the foreign market and therefore a development channel for the Italian food sector and an expansion of the market as a whole. By focusing only on three products, cheese, pasta and wine, and on four destination geographies, it would be possible, according to SACE, increase current exports by over 400 million by 2019. At the same time, a market in which Italian machinery for the production cycle of pasta, wine and cheese has historically been in demand are also markets to be monitored, finding there a downstream clientele already interested in a certain taste and a specific cuisine.
Here then, it is clear how in a supply chain approach the possibility of creating a system between different production sectors opens up new possibilities in identifying the geographies of opportunities and new ways in expanding into foreign markets. The expansion of the food products market does not derive only from a greater demand for the goods themselves, but can also come from the sale of machinery specialized in that production, and vice versa. Analyzing the trend of Italian exports in recent years to some of the most promising geographies such as China, India, Mexico and the USA, there is a clear relationship between the product sold and the machinery necessary for its production for all four countries in the case of cheeses and, more generally, for all products considered exported to China and Mexico. However, historically it seems difficult to follow a supply chain approach on markets such as India and the USA: the reasons are different and probably reside in the first case in a cultural factor and differences in taste, while in the second in the Italian sounding phenomenon and in the competition of local productions. According to analyst forecasts, additional exports in 2019 in the six sectors to these four markets could exceed 400 million euros, which means 20% more than in 2015 (2078 million euro), where the greatest potential export is driven in particular by the wine sector (215 million) and geographically precisely by the USA (330 million).
