Pasta between local and global context : a hard challenge for Italian enterprises

Today Italy is the world’s largest pasta producing country with an estimated output of more than 3.3 million tons in 2013 which represents around 25-30% of the world’s total pasta production and 73% of E.U. production. The current importance of the pasta industry has deep roots in Italy’s economic history and way of development. After unification (1861), several small pasta producers operating in the domestic market shifted to the factory system and extended exportation from Italy to remote foreign markets (such as the Americas). After World War II the crucial expansion of the European and global markets led food enterprises to expand production. Nevertheless, during the late 20th century and the early 21st century, the process of globalization represented a difficult challenge for Italian enterprises, due to the limits of the Italian system of capitalism, the lack of a strong national industrial policy and the emergence of large foreign corporations (Danone, Nestlé, Krafts) which took control of international markets.