International trade regulation and food safety: the case of Italian imports of fruit and vegetables from Southern Mediterranean Countries

The paper focuses on the implications entailed by the current EU food safety regulation on Italian firms importing fresh fruit and vegetables from Southern Mediterranean Countries. Its specific objectives are to identify the main benefits and difficulties of compliance with food safety regulation perceived by domestic operators and to provide recommendations on suitable policy intervention tools. The study was developed in three steps. Firstly, we provided an overall assessment of the compliance capacity of fruit and vegetables imported from Southern Mediterranean Countries, by means of secondary data gathered from the European Food Security Agency and the Italian Ministry of Health. Secondly, we formulated a set of research hypotheses on the main factors affecting compliance capacity according to the relevant scientific literature. Thirdly, based on these hypotheses, we carried out a direct survey on key players involved in fruit and vegetable imports in Italy, using a Delphi approach.