The dynamics of foreign trade in the Tuscan agri-food sector in 2023 and the first half of 2024

Short term Economic Notes 31/2024 by S. Turchetti

In 2023 the inflationary process that had been triggered in 2021 began to recede. Throughout the year, the trend in input prices was downward and, on average, they decreased by 2.5% compared to 2022. In particular, those products that had shown significant increases in the previous two years, namely fertilisers, feedstuffs and energy and lubricants, declined. Nevertheless, input price levels still remained very high.

In 2023, Tuscany’s foreign trade grew only for some production specialisations, but in general a drop in sales was observed. With regard to the Tuscan agri-food sector – including the agricultural sector and the food and beverage industry – the value of exports grew by 4.7%, slightly less than the rest of Italy due to the contraction in sales of beverages, while imports increased by 7.3%. Foreign sales of agricultural products remained in line with 2022 (458 M€), while imports grew more than in the rest of Italy (+4.2%). Exports of food industry products grew for the fourth year in a row (+12.5%), while, as mentioned above, exports of beverages declined slightly