International marketing strategies for the Italian agro-food districts

The agro-food sector is an important area of the Italian economy both in terms of volumes (8.4% of GDP, 7% of exports, 12.6% of employment - Istat and Eurostat, 2008 -) and advantages that it produces on the “Made in Italy” brand, in its various forms and manifestations. So, this is fundamental for the sector competitive abilities, which is also characterized by the existence of systemic forms among vital and alive SMEs. Together with these realities, there are other forms that have not yet achieved any adequate market positions, despite their significant capabilities (e.g., Apulian wine production). With reference to these considerations, this work aims to: 1) outline a useful model for setting international marketing strategies to aggregate Italian SMEs, operating on the agro-food sector, in particular on the "wine" product; 2) verify the implementation of these strategies on the wine supply chain in Apulia.