The Agrifood system in Italy: Structural Adjustments to face the Internationalization of the Food Industry.

In this article the authors describe the most important changes of the Agrifood System in Italy occurring in the last twenty years. The paper describes the structural transformation of Agriculture and the efforts of food industry to adapt to the internationalization of food markets. Agriculture and food industry are conceived as two sectors linked by functional relations of the Agrifood System. The structural changes of Agriculture are expressed by a consistent decrease in occupation and contribution to the GNP. However, structural changes vary greatly between regions and can be explained by a differcnt degrees of specialization, concentration of resources, technologies and rural development. Because of structural inefficiencies (small scale) low concentration and integration and poor commercial slrategies, food industry has encountered some difficulties in its structural change. However, progress has been made during the eighties to cope with these changes.