THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE ITALIAN FLOWER AND ORNAMENTAL PLANT SECTOR

Italian flowers and ornamental plants sector has been playing a remarkable role within the agricultural sector both in productive and employment terms. As regards the competitiveness, over the last few years, Italy has been confronted with a growing flowers supply at world level and with recurring market crises, sharpened also by an inadequate Common Market Organization which has not issued an adequate legislation giving financial guarantees to the sector operators. Nevertheless, the empirical analysis carried out on the Italian competitiveness in the flowers and plant sector has shown, in the comparison between 1994-1995 and 2004-2005, an apparent improvement of the comparative advantage thanks to an export growth rate far higher than the correspondent import rate. In detail, the analysis proves that, on the one hand, Italy has improved its advantage with respect to the Middle-Eastern European countries and Turkey and, on the other hand, it has kept on showing a stable despecialization level with respect to Israel, Thailand, Peru, South Africa and to the Netherlands