A mosaic type of development - the Agri-food Districts experience in Italy

The Italian Industrial Districts (IDs) are now considered in the national and international literatureas one of the main factors of the successful and rapid industrial development of Italy after theSecond World War. In this paper we outline the general characteristics of the IDs approach andthen the distinctive figures of the agrifood districts. A mosaic type of development characterised thegeographical distribution of the different agrifood districts in the Italian experience. The differentorigins of agrifood districts often determines their production and structural characteristics offirms, with a relevant role of SMEs. In many cases, these districts originated from handcrafttraditions and specific local demand. Their specialized production is often related to typical orhigh-quality products. The increasing demand for quality and typical food products might widen thepossibility of developing local and regional food districts. In the second part of the paper, we haveevaluated the economic performance and technical efficiency of a panel of firms in the meat sectorwhich belong or not to the districts, for the period 1998-2002. Some very interesting results havebeen obtained from the economic and financial analysis on balance sheets of a large number offirms in the meat processing. The stochastic production frontier has been utilized to measure the 'district effect'. We have noticed that in the last years, the 'district effect' has been reducingaccording to the general difficulties of Italian industrial sector.