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COUNTRY TRADING PROFILES
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Market access
Distributing a product |
Market access procedures |
Organizing goods transport |
Identifying a supplier |
Standards |
Intellectual Property
Distributing a product
- Evolution of the sector
- Italian retail trade represents a turnover of more than 300 billion EUR. For a long time, Italian industries were not competitive enough, and this led the Italian government to set up import barriers. The Italian population is traditionally attached to local shops. Modern distribution made its appearance a few years ago with the rise of large international groups such as Auchan/Rinascente or Carrefour who took advantage of a relaxing of legislation concerning setting up business, made necessary by European harmonization.
- Market shares
- The leading distributor in Italy is the Coop Italia group which is based on a network of more than 1 000 outlets in Italy and which had 17.7% of market share in 2004. Carrefour Italia had 10% and Auchan/Rinascente 9.5%.
Generally speaking, foreign names represent 47% of hypermarkets. In 2004, there were 469 hypermarkets, 990 supermarkets, and 6 627 small supermarkets. The foodstuff distribution market is very concentrated as the leading 10 groups have 77% of market share.
However, there is an imbalance between the north and the south of the country, however: more than 50% of supermarkets and 65% of hypermarkets are concentrated in the north. As a result, the large groups will have to concentrate their efforts on the southern part of the country.
- Organizations in the retail sector
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CONFIDA
Federi
Lega Coop
 We can identify professional tradeshows on your sector.
Market access procedures
- International Conventions
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Member of World Trade Organisation
Member of OECD
Party to the Kyoto protocol
Party to the Washington convention on International trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora
Party to the Basel convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their disposal
Party to the Montreal protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer
Wassenaar arrangement on export controls for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies
Party of the International coffee agreement 2001
- Main International economic cooperation
- Member of the European Union.
Member of the Eurozone.
Member of the European Economic Area which has guaranteed, since 1 January 1993, the free movement of most goods between European countries.
Multilateral and bilateral agreements with many countries but Italy is not part of all the agreements and unions to which the EU is a signatory.
- Non tariff barriers
- As it is a member of the European Union, Italy applies the Community regulations which are valid throughout the Union.
If the EU has quite a liberal foreign trade policy, there are a certain number of restrictions, especially at the level of agricultural products, ensuing from the implementation of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy): applying compensations when importing and exporting agricultural products to favor the development of agriculture within the EU implies a certain number of systems to control and regulate goods entering EU territory.
Moreover, for sanitary reasons, with regards to Genetically Modified Organisms, if they are allowed in Europe, their presence must, for example, be systematically specified on packaging. Importing beef fed on hormones is also prohibited.
The principle of precaution is now more widely favored: in case of doubt, import is prohibited until the non- noxiousness of the goods is proved.
- Customs duties and taxes on imports
- While the principle of free movement of goods forms the internal part of the Customs Union, the CCT forms the external part as it enables uniform Customs duties to be applied to products from third party countries, whichever Member State is the country of destination. Duties for countries outside Europe are not very high, especially for industrial products (4.2% on average for the general tariff).
- Customs classification
- Italy uses the harmonized system.
- Import procedures
- Import procedures are subject to a declaration on-line or on paper. You will find further information on the Agenzia delle Dogane (Customs Agency) website.
As part of the "SAFE" standards advocated by the World Customs Organization (WCO), the European Union has set up a new system of import controls, the "Import Control System" (ICS), which aims to secure the flow of goods at the time of their entry into the customs territory of the EU. This control system, part of the Community Program eCustomer, has been in effect since January 1, 2011. Since then, operators are required to pass an Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) to the customs of the country of entry, prior to the introduction of goods into the customs territory of the European Union.
- Importing samples
- The inscription "no a la vente" (not for sale) is compulsory on commercial samples.
- For further information
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Italian Customs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of the Economy
Ministry of Economic Development
We can indicate you which are the customs duties applied to your product.
Find out the local taxes that apply to your product.
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Last updates: February 2012
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