EFFICIENCY OF THE ITALIAN AGRI-FOOD INDUSTRY: AN ANALYSIS OF "DISTRICTS EFFECT"

In the course of the past decades major transformations in the Italian food industry induced considerable structural changes: on one hand, the creation of large industrial groups, with substantial input of foreign capital and, on the other, the concentration and geographic specialisation of numerous small and medium enterprises, with the formation of specific and typical agri-food local system (districts). To take account of the presence of food districts the analysis of the Italian food industry could not be conducted at national and regional level but it has to be studied at province and local level. It is also useful to analyse the food industry with reference to the different sub-sectors. We will conduct an in-depth analysis of the local systems (districts) of two sectors meat and fruit & vegetables processing. We will use balance-sheet data of the processing firms that were active in the meat (446 firms) and fruit & vegetables (227 firms) sub-sector in the years from 1996 to 1999. The analysis will consider the most significant balance sheet ratios, such as returns, productivity and labour cost in these local systmems. Then, we will consider the economic assessment of the firms belonging to local systems of the two sectors and compare with the non district firms. For the efficiency analysis will estimate a stochastic frontier production function in order to determine the "district effect". This analysis will also be directly correlated with investment in technological innovation. The economic and efficiency analysis confirms for many aspects the presence of a "district effect" in the Italian food industry.Food industry's efficiency, Food districts, Local development, Stochastic frontier production function, Meat and fruit sectors, Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

A Comparative Analysis of the Meat Sector in Hungary and Emilia-Romagna: Performance and Efficiency

In the last years, a lot of important changes occurred inside the European Union after the entering of 12 new member States. The rate of economic growth of the new member States has been higher the other EU members. In Hungary, particularly, the growth level has reached an intermediate position, placing itself at 4% GDP per capita. Comparative analysis are needed to better understand the process of catching-up and to evaluate how the integration between EU regions and countries is going on. The aim of this paper is to compare the economic and efficiency performance of firms in Hungary and Emilia-Romagna, considering a specific sector, meat processing and storage, of the food industry). We will investigate if in the last years the integration process has ultimately led to narrow the gap in the economic performances and efficiency of the firms. The choice of meat processing industry is due to the fact that in Hungary theres a remarkable animal production, whereas in the Emilia-Romagna region the meat industry reflects an organizational structure based on the concentration and specialization in agri-food districts. This paper compares the financial-economic performances and the technical efficiency of firms involved in the industry of meat processing in Hungary and in an Italian region, Emilia-Romagna. We will also discuss and compare the different results obtained throughout governance and structure of meat industry. We will underline the main role of the industrial districts in Emilia-Romagna, and how the Hungarian entrepreneurial system could handle the competition in the global market.Firms financial-economic performances, stochastic production function, agri-food districts, meat processing industry, Hungarian and Emilia-Romagna food industry, Livestock Production/Industries,

I distretti agroindustriali: un'analisi economica, strutturale e dell'efficienza delle imprese alimentari.

L'analisi dell'industria agroalimentare a livello territoriale disaggregato (provinciale e comunale) mette in evidenza una realtà molto più composita rispetto agli studi condotti in precedenza. Questo lavoro mostra come i processi di localizzazione e specializzazione dei singoli comparti caratterizzano e differenziano la struttura produttiva di numerosi sistemi locali. L'analisi dei principali indicatori economici, finanziari e di produttività dei bilanci delle imprese alimentari italiane mostra risultati economic migliori per le imprese localizzate nei sistemi locali specializzati. Un'ulteriore copnferma si ottiene mediante la stima di una funzione di rpoduzione stocastica dove l'"effetto distretto" per il comparto delle carni risulta particolarmente evidente.

Metabolomics of cancer cell cultures to assess the effects of dietary phytochemicals

Cancer is a multi-factorial disease and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Dietary phytochemicals have been used for the treatment of cancer throughout history due to their safety, low toxicity, and general availability. Several studies have been performed to elucidate the effects of dietary phytochemicals on cancer metabolism, and many molecular targets of phytochemicals have been discovered. In spite of remarkable progress, their effects on cancer metabolism have not yet been fully clarified. Recent developments in metabolomics allowed to probe much further the metabolism of cancer, highlighting altered metabolic pathways and offering a new powerful tool to investigate cancer disease. In this review, we discuss the main metabolic alterations of cancer cells and the potentiality of phytochemicals as promising modulators of cancer metabolism. We will focus on the application of nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomics on breast and hepatocellular cancer cell lines to evaluate the impact of curcumin and resveratrol on cancer metabolome with the aim to demonstrate the premise of this approach to provide useful information for a better understanding of impact of diet components on cancer disease

EFFICIENCY OF THE ITALIAN AGRI-FOOD INDUSTRY: AN ANALYSIS OF "DISTRICTS EFFECT"

In the course of the past decades major transformations in the Italian food industry induced considerable structural changes: on one hand, the creation of large industrial groups, with substantial input of foreign capital and, on the other, the concentration and geographic specialisation of numerous small and medium enterprises, with the formation of specific and typical agri-food local system (districts). To take account of the presence of food districts the analysis of the Italian food industry could not be conducted at national and regional level but it has to be studied at province and local level. It is also useful to analyse the food industry with reference to the different sub-sectors. We will conduct an in-depth analysis of the local systems (districts) of two sectors meat and fruit & vegetables processing. We will use balance-sheet data of the processing firms that were active in the meat (446 firms) and fruit & vegetables (227 firms) sub-sector in the years from 1996 to 1999. The analysis will consider the most significant balance sheet ratios, such as returns, productivity and labour cost in these local systmems. Then, we will consider the economic assessment of the firms belonging to local systems of the two sectors and compare with the non district firms. For the efficiency analysis will estimate a stochastic frontier production function in order to determine the "district effect". This analysis will also be directly correlated with investment in technological innovation. The economic and efficiency analysis confirms for many aspects the presence of a "district effect" in the Italian food industry

Circular economy. Valorization of waste plant biomass to produce active ingredients with antimicrobial activity against human and plant pathogens

Plant extracts rich in bioactive compounds represent an alternative to the use of synthetic drugs. Extensive research over the last two decades has identified plant antimicrobials with a broad spectrum of activity against a variety of fungal and bacterial pathogens. Plant biomass wastes from agricultural and agro-industrial processes aim at a "zero waste" economy and represent the most important source of phytochemicals. This review provides information in processing technologies for the valorization of agroindustrial biomass wastes with a dual purpose: to reduce agricultural waste and convert it into value-added metabolites active against human and plant pathogenic microorganisms. In this chapter, published studies on active ingredients against human and plant pathogens obtained from the wine industry, from the olive oil extraction industry and from the fruit juice industry have been considered