The «consorzi vinicoli» in Italy during the twentieth century: a model of success co-operative enterprise

Abstract

Co-operative wineries in the traditional wine-producing countries of the Mediterranean Europe show similar features from a historical point of view. These entities are a key factor to understand the evolution of the wine sector in the major producing region of the world. In this context, the case Italy is outstanding. In that country co-operative wineries have experienced greater business success. That contradicts to a part of economic theory that considers that this business model is less efficient than capitalist and it is useful only in times of crisis. The main target of this work is to establish what were the causes of Italian co-operative wineries are a case of business success. We consider the key factor of this differential fact was the presence of “umbrella organizations”. They helped to structuring and developing the sector to improve their competitiveness through the formation of large co-operative consortia of second and third degree (consorzi vinicoli).