The Italian bioeconomy is growing, is concentrated in the typical Made in Italy sectors and is good for companies given that 'biobased' companies, which on average are small and more widespread in the North, record a greater increase in turnover than others.
This, in summary, is what emerges from "The Circular Bioeconomy in Italy: characteristics of businesses and development opportunities" the report produced by the Spring Cluster, Unioncamere and the Guglielmo Tagliacarne Study Center, with Astrid, Intesa Sanpaolo Studies and Research Department, Symbola, SVIMEZ , SRM, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Suor Orsola Benincasa University, Materias. Biobased companies are concentrated in sectors typically made in Italy (food, beverages and tobacco 13.5%; textiles 8.9%; clothing 7.9%) and are mainly medium to small in size (45.6% of them have between 20 and 49 employees) and 65% are in the North. approximately 60% of biobased companies export, especially in the case of larger companies: 86.0% of companies with 250 or more employees export, compared to 37.3% of companies with 10-19 employees.
In terms of performance, 50.5% of organic companies recorded an increase in turnover in 2022 compared to 42.8% of non-organic companies) and better resilience (34.8% of organic companies exceeded pre-Covid production levels in 2022 vs 25.1% of non-organic ones).
The green soul of organic companies is also reflected in the choice of managers and figures who deal with sustainability and the 15.8% of them who draw up a sustainability report. Attention is also paid in 55% of cases to welfare and well-being in the company. Open innovation strongly characterizes the sector; 66.7% of biobased companies have in fact adopted an "open" model of innovation and the propensity of biobased companies to invest in R&D is strong. Finally, own resources and bank loans are the sources of financing used most by businesses: 73.5% in the first case and 60.9% in the second case.
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