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In the last programming period of the European Maritime Fisheries Fund, Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) have been in charge of meeting the objectives of Union Priority 4, aimed at boosting territorial cohesion and employment in European coastal areas. These local partnerships have hence received support for the elaboration of local development strategies that should promote both territorial and sectorial projects, balancing the interests of the different stakeholders involved. This article provides for a literature review of the scientific contributions on FLAGs, organizing the main findings according to the six dimensions of the Porter’s Diamond Model in the context of the cluster analysis on coastal communities’ competitiveness. Moreover, by focusing on FLAGs from Italy, Spain and France, the paper discusses the orientation towards sectoral and territorial interests in the Mediterranean. It emerges that while the literature has mostly emphasized their territorial functions, FLAGs- especially those in areas with relatively higher incidence of employment in fisheries-related sectors- have prioritized projects of sectorial scope.

The connection between food security and migration is increasingly discussed by both international agencies and academic literature. However, despite several improvements, we continue to know little about the complex causal-effect relations that link these aspects and, in particular, how much migration patterns are affected by food security issues and how much, as a feedback, migration can affect food security, on both the origin and destination areas. This paper aims firstly to draw a general framework of this nexus and then to validate it using empirical literature on the African continent. A few common points can be emphasized for the continent: due to structural and familiar characteristics, different strategies based on opportunity costs or risk minimization (including food security aspects) may emerge; individuals often migrate following household strategies; multi-nodal households are emerging; land grabbing and land tenure security represent important drivers to be considered; emergencies or critical situations often cause the erosion of women rights. In many situations, the poverty trap prevents most food insecure households to leave marginal lands.

The objective of this paper is to provide a focused analysis of the competitiveness of fruit and vegetable exports from two south Mediterranean countries (Egypt and Morocco).We first provide a brief overview of the export flows to the international market, which aims to analyze the dynamics of destination markets and the range of exported products. Then, competitiveness on the European (and Italian) market is analyzed. After an introductory analysis of the dynamics of the Egyptian and Moroccane market shares regarding eu (and Italian) F&V imports over the period 2000-2010 per product category, a Constant Market Share Analysis (cmsa) is developed. This method enables us to further analyze trade performance by splitting up the various imports from Egypt and Morocco into different components (market size, commodity composition, and competitiveness effect). Finally, we provide a discussion on the question of what extent imports from Egypt and Morocco and Italian production might substitute or complement each other and on a discussion on potential price and non-price competitiveness factors. This discussion is further developed with an analysis of third countries’ abilities to comply with the Italian market’s food safety requirements. The paper finishes with a discussion on the prospects for North-South cooperation.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the supply chain organization of Appellation of Origin wines, identify the typologies of economic agents and characterize their strategic behaviour, in order to identify the link between product range choices, procurement strategies and typologies of vertical relationship along the production, processing and bottling stages. The aim is to identify the possible strategic options for the valorization of Appellations of Origin on the final market. We first provide a descriptive analysis of the wine bottling stage, by distinguishing bottlers according to the types of vertical relationship with upstream production and processing stages. Afterwards, we describe bottlers’ structural characteristics and strategic decisions concerning product range and procurement strategies. Then, a cluster analysis is conducted, in order to identify typologies of bottlers, according to structural and organizational characteristics and strategic decision. On the basis of the clusters identified, a description of the possible strategic options for the valorization of Appellations of Origin is then provided.

While peripheral rural regions in Lebanon face typical problems of lagging development and economic marginalisation, they have not been regarded as a priority for policy-makers, and significant disparities between these and other regions have emerged as a result. Local extensionists have encouraged technological innovation as a means to improving farmers' livelihoods, and this has led to increasing input use and an intensification of agricultural production. This paper applies contrasting quantitative and qualitative methodologies to analyse the effects of such changes at the level of the overall economy of Lebanon and also to explore the impacts on rural households. A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model explores several simulation scenarios in which agricultural output increases due to intensification in the use of intermediate inputs. The results are evaluated at local level through the use of qualitative case-study analysis carried out in the Hermel region of northeast Lebanon. Quantitative simulations indicate that, while intensification has a positive effect overall on the Lebanese economy, the effects on rural households and the income of farmers are negative; the case-study demonstrates that, at local level, agricultural trade liberalisation, increased agricultural output and greater volatility of commodity prices has resulted in farmers opting for lower input use and more secure market forms of production.