Agrindustrial district model: rethinking public policies

Abstract

This article is based on a literature review that visits classic and contemporary authors of relevance, as well as cases of agro-industrial districts that exhibit high performance of worldwide recognition, in order to focus on the Italian agrifood district (typical agrifood local system). This type of organization constitutes a peculiar form of concept of organizing agribusiness systems. This concept tries to explain the agriculture and industry relations based on the studies conducted by Davis and Goldberg and by the French School of Industrial Economics, in the 1960s. Besides exhibiting general traits of agro-industrial systems, the Italian agrifood districts advance as for their capacity to create an atmosphere of a Marshallian industrial district in the territory, in which relationships are always closer and more explicit between agents within the productive agglomeration. This cooperative environment helps the district to become an innovation habitat able to share and, at the same time, to reduce entrepreneurial risks and acquire competitiveness. This paper aims to rethink public policies regarding industrial settlements and productive forms of agribusiness organizations in the territory.