An analysis of the Organization of Italian farmers Coldiretti on data of the external trade by the National Bureau of Statistics of Italy in February showed that the food industry has registered an increase of 9.3 per cent of exports to the European Union and of 19.1 percent in the non-EU, thanks to the growing demand of the Asian giant China. In China, Italy exported food and drinks for a total value of eur 248 million in 2011, with an increase of 30 percent compared to 2010. Among the products that Chinese prefer, in addition to wines, whose exports reached a value of eur 67 million (in a record growth of 63 per cent), there are olive oil with eur 24 million (an increase of 4 per cent), cakes and cookies with 10 million euro (+ 20 percent), pasta with eur 5.3 million (an increase of 60 percent) and cheese with 2.7 million euro (an increase of 42 percent). However, it is the Italian sparkling wine to have recorded the highest growth in demand in China, where consumption has more than tripled in 2011 (+ 235%), thanks to the presence of at least 2.7 million people with a personal net worth more than 6 million yuan (over eur 600,000) who appreciate Italian food, according to the report on the consumption of luxury goods by the Chinese, drawn up by the Industrial Bank in collaboration with the Hurun Research Institute (www.agichina24.it ).

As for the food and beverage industry, the opportunities thus appear to be increasing. In general, however, despite a dynamic market that sees their growing volumes, Italian food products exported to China are still considerable values rather marginal compared to the consumption potential of the country. The penetration of Italian food products in China is still limited by commercial and cultural obstacles, to overcome which the strategy could be to 'be accepted and be understood', stages leading to be bought (Alessandro Fatovic, a member directors of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in China). In this sense, a critical success factor could be accounted for by the ability of the Italian producers to join the network, in order to gain a stronger position in the Chinese market than they would be able to do individually.