The Italian food industry is showing signs of recovery, although the year-on-year comparison continues to show a negative trend. According to ISTAT data on industrial production for September, the food, beverage, and tobacco sector recorded a 1,2% increase compared to August, compared to a 1,8% decrease compared to the same month in 2025. This result highlights a short-term recovery in production, but does not bring the sector back to the previous year's levels. Moderately positive indications also come from the third-quarter results, which show a 0,5% increase compared to the previous three months. Considering the entire January-September period, agri-food production recorded a 0,2% decrease compared to the first nine months of 2025. The sector therefore continues to show substantial stability overall for the year, accompanied by greater weakness in individual month-on-month comparisons.
The performance of the food industry is part of a national picture characterized by mixed signals. In September, Italian industrial production increased overall by 1,2% compared to August, recovering from the previous decline, while on an annual basis it recorded a slight decrease of 0,1%. The third quarter closed with a 0,4% decline compared to the previous quarter. Among the various industrial groupings, the consumer goods sector also faced difficulties, with production decreasing by 3% compared to September 2025. For non-durable goods, a category that also includes food and beverages, the annual contraction stood at 2,5%, while the monthly comparison shows an increase of 0,3%. The food sector therefore exhibited a less pronounced year-on-year decline than non-durable consumer goods as a whole. Another significant factor concerns the sector's weighting within the national industry: according to the weighting structure used by Istat, food, beverages, and tobacco represent approximately 10% of the overall industrial production index. The September data thus confirm a short-term recovery in production, but also the sector's difficulty in returning to a stable growth path by 2025.
