THE ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF THE ITALIAN CITRUS GROWING

Citrus-fruit cultivation in Italy has a considerable economic, social, and environmental significance, both in terms of its cultural aspects, tied to the traditions, and for the link that citrus growing has with the territory. However, over the last two decades the Italian citrus sector has seen a reduction of 21% in the land area planted with citrus fruits, owing to the spread of the “Tristeza virus”, to the globalisation of markets, to technological processes, and to the changes in consumption patterns. This phenomenon has experienced a particularly intense phase from 2010 to date, arousing the interest of the worlds of business and of politics, and of society as a whole, in the general reflections regarding the effects on the population and on the environment that this process could generate. Analysing this scenario, it has been observed that the Italian citrus fruit sector can be distinguished and classified according to four types of enterprise: ancestral, organic, traditional, and innovative. The classification derives from the form of management of the citrus orchard, from the system of development of the terrain, from the age of the facilities, and from the citrus variety itself. In this context, in order to define the models of development and to understand the economic sustainability of the different types of enterprise, the methodology of comparative analysis between homogenous models was selected, attributable to Padel (1994), Lampkin (1999), Scuderi (2013), and Zanoli (2015), and it is from these that the major elements for the definition of the overall scenario that characterises the analysis of economic sustainability are derived. The analysis conducted in 2015 studied a sample of 100 Italian citrus producers, specifically of oranges. The results, in addition to enabling analysis of the economic situation, have revealed some interesting differences between the four different types of enterprise, generating, in marketing terms, the following keywords for each of the groups of enterprise: ancestral (landscape, territory, small dimensions), organic (environment, health, landscape), traditional (quality, quantity, typical), and innovative (research, market, consumer), each one of which, for its specific peculiarities, must represent the starting point for reflection on exalting the “plus” of the individual productions in order to define a sustainable path for the Italian citrus fruit growing.