Trade of tomatoes in Italy

Italy is both a major exporter and a major importer of tomato products, primarily because there is a tremendous amount of intra-industry trade.

 

 

Italy imports a substantial quantity as inputs for further processing. After the U.S., China is a major source for these imports. Most of the tomato product imports into Italy are reprocessed and re-exported. The 2004 labeling regulations, intended to favor domestic Italian production by identifying the source of the input tomato, have not resulted in any significant reduction of imports, from China or elsewhere.

 

 

Italy’s export market has seen some recent shifting. Declines in some of their more traditional markets, such as Germany, have been offset by increases to markets in Eastern Europe and Russia.

 

 

While Italy is one of the world’s leading exporters of processed tomato products, in order to meet both domestic consumption requirements and a fairly stable export demand, growing imports have been needed. China’s emergence as a high-volume, low-cost producer is being felt as traditional exporters are being displaced in global markets.

 

 

Interestingly, China’s largest paste market is Italy, where the paste is reprocessed for further use.