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Abstract
The Italian Industrial Districts (IDs) are now considered in the national and international literature
as one of the main factors of the successful and rapid industrial development of Italy after the
Second World War. In this paper we outline the general characteristics of the IDs approach and
then the distinctive figures of the agrifood districts. A mosaic type of development characterised the
geographical distribution of the different agrifood districts in the Italian experience. The different
origins of agrifood districts often determines their production and structural characteristics of
firms, with a relevant role of SMEs. In many cases, these districts originated from handcraft
traditions and specific local demand. Their specialized production is often related to typical or
high-quality products. The increasing demand for quality and typical food products might widen the
possibility of developing local and regional food districts. In the second part of the paper, we have
evaluated the economic performance and technical efficiency of a panel of firms in the meat sector
which belong or not to the districts, for the period 1998-2002. Some very interesting results have
been obtained from the economic and financial analysis on balance sheets of a large number of
firms in the meat processing. The stochastic production frontier has been utilized to measure the 'district effect'. We have noticed that in the last years, the 'district effect' has been reducing
according to the general difficulties of Italian industrial sector.