The majority of Italian citrus fruit production is destined to the fresh market, with prevalence for the domestic one, while a variable amount between 5% and 8% is intended for exportation. Concerning Italian production of citrus fruit, Sicilian Red Orange started a strategy that sees internationalization as one of the strongest point to exploit it. Foreign markets for future expansion, besides European ones, could be those overseas, such as United States, Canada and Japan. In order to export to these markets, specific agreements between Italy and destination countries were signed, based on severe phytosanitary protocols (to control the healthy characteristics of products), that consider “cold treatment” over quality controls. Being compliant with such protocols and transportation logistics affects oranges to be exported a lot, with the result of final fruits of a quality that often does not meet consumers’ expectations and limits shelf life above all. This paper, retracing the main steps that have characterized the definition of the international agreements and the main stages of product treatment and transportation logistics, aims at identifying the most critical issues and solve them in order to improve quality and final shelf life of products. This review was carried out throughout 2009, studying citrus fruit commercialization process of some Sicilian companies of the sector. From the beginning, in fact, many critical points came out either for processing procedures or transportation logistics, generating considerable costs and a limited residual shelf life. Jointly an overall economic assessment of costs arising from exportation was made, as well as an evaluation of oranges through a home-use test, as instruments of the “consumer science” adopted for a subjective evaluation of the product.
Titolo: | Economic analysis citrus fruit destined to markets |
Autori interni: | |
Data di pubblicazione: | 2011 |
Rivista: | |
Handle: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/245975 |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 1.1 Articolo in rivista |