At Eima, the Nomisma-Edagricole research institute on young farmers (Osservatorio sui Giovani Agricoltori Nomisma-Edagricole) presented the results of their analysis of the developmental characteristics of Italian young farmers.
Although they represent less than 10% of Italian farms, the companies lead by "youngs" perform better in economic terms. Their production value is almost 100,000 euros per company against the sector average of 45,000 euros. Usually, young people manage more structured and diversified companies, thanks to their innovative and technological approach to the market. This allows them overcoming the initial difficulties as the high price of the fields, for instance.
The Italian world of young farmers consists of two parts: the ones who inherited the family’s business and others who saw in the farming new opportunities which are not solely related to the production. However, they have one thing in common: the passion for this job, which is not the easiest, so to say. Without passion, neither of the abovementioned categories could perform such a task.
Nomisma highlighted that almost 55,000 companies are led by people younger than 35 years old, as of June 2018. They represent only 10% of the total Italian farming companies. However, the trend has grown 14% bigger compared to three years ago.
Denis Pantini, Nomisma agri-food manager, “Even though they are limited in terms of incidence, there are way more ‘young’ Italian companies than French (38,000), Spanish (34,000) and German (20,500) ones. Further, Italian companies care a lot about inclusion and diversity: three out of ten ‘young’ companies are led by women whereas in France and Germany only 15% of companies are, and only 19% in Spain.
With regard to the revenue, our ‘young’ companies are among the best in Europe. The standard output of Italian companies is at 98,700 euros, while the Spanish companies' are at 65,000 euros and the EU average is at 55,600. On the other hand, French (169,000) and German (198,000) companies are at the top.
The top 5 Italian regions with the highest density of ‘young’ companies are Sicily, Puglia, Campania, Calabria and Lazio. They represent altogether almost half of all the Italian primary sector ‘young’ companies.
The Italian regions with the largest ‘young’ companies are Sardinia (46.5 hectares per company on average) and Valle d’Aosta (42.8 hectares) – both of which characterised by large meadows and pastures. Then are Piemonte, Lombardia and Marche. With regard to the performance, the young Northern farmers have no rival. The ‘young’ Lombardian companies stand at the top (409,000 euros of production value per company on average), followed by Veneto (305,000), Emilia-Romagna (180,000), Piemonte (135,000) and Friuli Venezia-Giulia (97,000).
The sectors where most of the "youngs" work in are the poultry and milk ones, followed by the horticulture (8%), the pig (6%), the fruit and wine (5%) ones.
In 2019, the Nomisma-Edagricole Research Institute aims at analysing 2,000 farms led by people under 40 years old, at least.