The stakeholder's perception of socio-economic impacts generated by COVID-19 pandemic within the Italian aquaculture systems.

From the beginning of March 2020 and for the following two and half months, many European countries comprising Italy have been forced into an unprecedented lockdown, allowing only the opening of essential economic activities needed to address the problems created by the pandemic (e.g. sanitary, food provision). Like many sectors of the Italian economy, aquaculture has also slowed down due to the ongoing emergency and the consequent closure of business. In our study we provided a 'snapshot' of the socio-economic effects of the lockdown on the aquaculture sector in Italy, immediately following the adoption of the COVID-19 restrictions as they were perceived by the workers. Although it was surveyed for a short-time period, differences in perception have been detected both in relation to the type of aquaculture as well as to the geographic locations where farms were placed, partially reflecting the economic gaps already existing within the northern and the southern part of the country before the lockdown.

Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan in an industrial policy perspective

Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan provides over 230 billion euros for rescuing the economy after the covid-19 crisis. This article provides an analysis of the Plan, with a focus on its industrial policy implications. The challenge of rebuilding the Italian economy would require less fragmentation of the measures and a medium-term development strategy, but such a vision is missing from the approach and content of the Plan. National and European resources available for addressing the crisis should focus on key priority fields, including digital technologies, environmentally sustainable economic activities, and welfare and public health services. New targeted policy tools are required, moving beyond ‘horizontal’ incentives to firms, and new public institutions could guide investment efforts towards a new development trajectory. © 2021, Associazione Economia Civile. All rights reserved.

The aquaculture supply chain in the time of covid-19 pandemic: Vulnerability, resilience, solutions and priorities at the global scale.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has had severe, unpredictable and synchronous impacts on all levels of perishable food supply chains (PFSC), across multiple sectors and spatial scales. Aquaculture plays a vital and rapidly expanding role in food security, in some cases overtaking wild caught fisheries in the production of high-quality animal protein in this PFSC. We performed a rapid global assessment to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related emerging control measures on the aquaculture supply chain. Socio-economic effects of the pandemic were analysed by surveying the perceptions of stakeholders, who were asked to describe potential supply-side disruption, vulnerabilities and resilience patterns along the production pipeline with four main supply chain components: a) hatchery, b) production/processing, c) distribution/logistics and d) market. We also assessed different farming strategies, comparing land- vs. sea-based systems; extensive vs. intensive methods; and with and without integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, IMTA. In addition to evaluating levels and sources of economic distress, interviewees were asked to identify mitigation solutions adopted at local / internal (i.e., farm-site) scales, and to express their preference on national / external scale mitigation measures among a set of a priori options. Survey responses identified the potential causes of disruption, ripple effects, sources of food insecurity, and socio-economic conflicts. They also pointed to various levels of mitigation strategies. The collated evidence represents a first baseline useful to address future disaster-driven responses, to reinforce the resilience of the sector and to facilitate the design reconstruction plans and mitigation measures, such as financial aid strategies.

An industrial policy after the coronavirus pandemic in italy

Italy's economy has been severely hit by the coronavirus crisis, after a decade of stagnation and decline in its capabilities and performances. The challenge of reconstructing the country's economy requires a new industrial policy, in the context of Europe's Green deal strategy and new initiatives of the «Recovery Fund». The national and European resources that are made available for addressing the crisis have to focus on key priority fields, including digital technologies, environmentally sustainable economic activities and welfare and public health services. There is also a need for new policy tools and institutions with the tasks of managing public investment, holding government shares in publicly owned large firms, and supporting new economic initiatives with a public investment bank. © 2020 Societa Editrice il Mulino. All rights reserved.