Evaluating the Potential for Development of Vegetable Nursery Industry: Analysis in an Important Vegetable Region in Italy

Nursery industry has a considerable importance in the value chain’ building of vegetable companies. Its importance increases in a country like Italy, where vegetable productions in open field and in greenhouse contribute significantly to the creation of income and employment and to the socio-economic support of entire geographic areas. However, this sector is underpowered, if compared to the potential expressed by the vegetable production, considering that technical, economic and market literature suggests the opportunity to extend the use of transplantation as an alternative to the direct seeding in order to achieve environmental and commercial benefits. This work was both the result of a meta-analysis and a direct survey and aims to determine an estimate of demand of nursery industry in Sicily, a region that intercepts approximately 31% of national investments in protected cultivation and provides the basis for evaluating the activation potential of new investments, considering technical legislative and market aspects and the supply chain integration.