The Italian agricultural sector could potentially benefit from €3.5 billion from online sales if the opportunities were better exploited, a study reported by news outlet Ansa.it has found.
The study, by KPMG also points out that online food sales are growing, despite stalled or falling sales among traditional retailers.
According to KPMG partner Roberto Giovannini, online sales of food and drink in Italy is still underdeveloped and represents only 0.35% of total food sales, amounting to €570 million.
He pointed out that Italian food “is much desired by the world's consumers”, so strategies have to be put in place by identifying the markets with growing digitisation and where the right mix of products should be proposed.
Looking East
In this sense, the Asian markets and China in particular are especially promising. In fact, the total number of online food sales in China accounts for 43% of the global volume of food & beverage sales, at a value of €16.5 billion.
For his part, Rodrigo Cipriani Foresio, managing director of Alibaba Group for Southern Europe, points out that his company represents a very useful platform to facilitate the arrival of Italian agri-food enterprises in China.
In this context, Alibaba has announced the launch of a permanent pavilion of Italian products, with particular attention to food, in collaboration with Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE).
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
