(Finance) – LThe increase in fuel prices also weighs on agri-food exports, with almost 40% of foods and drinks Made in Italy shipped abroad that travels by road. An analysis states thisthe Coldiretti on Istat data, released on the occasion of the latest increases in the national average prices charged at the petrol and diesel pump. A burden that will hit companies across the entire supply chain after a 2024 in which exports set an all-time record, for an estimated value of around 70 billion euros.
Fuel price increases are likely to get even worse – underlines Coldiretti – a situation which already sees the costs of transporting food and drinks impacting approximately double compared to the general average of all other products traveling by road and sea, while it is equal to three times for railway logistics and 5 times that of air transport according to an analysis by the Divulga Study Center.
In value, road transport is equal to approximately 140 euros per ton, twice that of rail transport (67 euros/ton), again according to the analysis of the Divulga Study Center on Bank of Italy data.
A problem also linked to the infrastructural gap which penalizes Italy today compared to other European countries, starting from agri-food, for which logistics is crucial also due to the high perishability of the products and the high capillarity of the agricultural production fabric . Suffice it to say that for the fruit and vegetable sector, transport costs account for around a third of the total.
Delays that weigh on the balance sheets of Italian agri-food companies for 9 billion euros per year in “lost exports”, equal to 10% of the overall loss estimated for the country, according to Divulga.
To be able to resize it Our country’s logistical imbalance is important exploit the opportunities offered by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) to rebalance an excessively unbalanced national model, with a still too limited contribution from other methods of moving goods, the railway network first and foremost.
Projects which, together with further strategies that can be implemented, go into the direction of a synergistic development of the different alternatives with a view to intermodality while also enhancing the advantages offered by digitalisation.