ORGANIC MEAT IN ITALY: SITUATION AND PERSPECTIVES ON THE LIGHT OF THE EXPERIENCE OF A SMALL GROUP OF FIRMS LOCATED IN THE VENETO REGION

Although organic meat consumption has recently shown a great percentage growth in some EU countries, different problems have risen in order to supply the markets with adequate levels of organic meat, especially in countries like Italy, where conventional meat production is mostly based on very intensive methods. The first part of this paper is a review of the production and market situation of organic meat in Italy, whereas the second is a preliminary attempt of examining the structural features and the marketing strategies of a pioneer group of firms which have begun to produce and/or to process and market different types of organic meat in the Veneto Region, the most important area for the production of conventional meat in Italy. Besides some satisfactory results, the research has shown many difficulties related either to the costs or to the prices faced by the organic farms. The costs are mainly due to the wide gap between organic production techniques and the conventional ones; the prices are typical of the building up of a new niche market. By now, these difficulties seem to prevent a rapid expansion of domestic supply of organic meat in Veneto, although specific research programs could overcome some of them