Export is the engine of Italian horticulture

According to the current status report from the 'National Institute of Agricultural Economics Research' (INEA), export is still the driving force of Italian agriculture. According to this report, Italy exported 33.6 billion Euro worth of agricultural products in 2013. This is 6% more than in 2012. 22.5 of the 33.6 billion was exported to other EU-countries, which is an increase of 5%. Export to the U.S., Australia, Asia and Africa also increased.

The main export product in 2013 was wine, with an export value of 5.1 billion Euro, followed by fruit and vegetables with 4.5 billion Euro and oil with 1.3 billion Euro. In the last year the import of raw materials and semi-finished products to Italy increased; according to the INEA this shows the increasing reliance on Italy abroad.

In total, the production and processing of agricultural products slightly decreased this past year (as did homeland consumption), which was taken care of by higher prices. According to INEA, the Italian's agricultural sector's production value of 55 billion Euro in 2013 is relatively stable when taking the recession into account.