Agriculture, Ismea: first signs of recovery in agricultural markets in March

The month of March shows the first real signs of recovery after the crisis triggered by Covid. According to Ismea’s Agrimercati report, a series of economic indicators have improved since the end of the third quarter. First of all, exports which, thanks to the momentum in March (+ 10.6%, after -4.7 in January and 0.4% in February), make the first quarter of 2021 stand at 2.2 % above the level of the same period last year, when Italy had not yet been completely overwhelmed by the global socio-health emergency. The trend towards recovery of shipments abroad is then further strengthened also in April which recorded an increase in value of 22.3% on an annual basis. But even more revealing of the current trend reversal is the figure for imports, which after the decline in 2020 and the first two months of 2021, recorded an increase of almost 12% on an annual basis in March. Given the transformative vocation of the national agri-food industry, the recovery of imports is also prodromal of further growth in deliveries abroad in the coming months, reflecting the slowdown of the restrictions in place in many of Italy’s commercial partners, on the in the wake of the positive outcome of the vaccination campaign. First signs of improvement also for the sentiment of agricultural businesses and the food industry, after the inevitable collapse of confidence that accompanied the entire course of 2020. According to the Ismea index which summarizes the opinions of operators on the current and future situation for the primary phase and the opinions on the trend of orders, level of stocks and on production expectations there would be greater optimism, especially in relation to the prospects in the near future. Meanwhile, Ismea emphasizes in the report, the pandemic year has led to an increase in the use of credit by operators in the supply chain, above all to cope with liquidity problems. While for the food industries loan applications have always shown a certain dynamism, for the agricultural phase this increase comes after years of progressive declines.