International Marketing and Trade of Protected Designation of Origin Products

This paper aims to analyse the international marketing and trade strategies implemented by Italian quality food producers with special attention to the export and trade issues for two important Italian PDO products: Prosciutto di Parma PDO and Parmigiano-Reggiano PDO. The international marketing and trade strategies will be analysed according to the four Ps approach, widely applied in national marketing studies especially for food industrial products. In particular, PDO products and other EU quality labelled products, has been analysed in international trade contexts using other methodologies (such as sector analysis). The paper reports theories and case studies of the supply chain players strategies, focusing on the rapid change in trading and distribution channels. The future of PDO and PGI products is not only connected to their positioning, promotion and international protection but also to the strategies of the retail leaders and to the overall strategy of the producers, ranging from small to international companies. The latter are more and more present in the market of EU quality labelled product which represents a diversification and a good investment to improve market positioning.