23. Stakeholders views and expectations on food district in the province of Foggia – Apulia region: a preliminary study

The food district is an innovative measure introduced by the Italian Financial Programme Law 2018, aiming at fostering the integration of food production, distribution, including retailers and restaurants. The present paper, by means of qualitative/participatory methodologies, investigates the key elements stakeholders consider for its development in the province of Foggia, Southern Italy, given the background seeing agri-food districts initiative failing. Main findings concern the need to identify the leading institution (public or private); the opportunity to conduct a 'pilot test' on a small case study; the difficulty to build a shared sense of strong identity, to foster the interest of all categories of stakeholders.