Rome is the capital of the sea economy. One in two blue companies is in the South

It is Lazio, with Rome and its province at the head, that is the Italian region with the largest number of companies focusing on the maritime economy; and the Mezzogiorno accounts for almost half of the companies in the sector. But if we look at the productivity of these companies, calculated through the percentage rate of their incidence on the total local economy, it is Liguria that tops the national ranking, with 10.6%.

The data come from an analysis by the Tagliacarne Institute (study centre of the Cciaa) on the 12th Report on the Sea Economy, produced together with Unioncamere, Ossermare, Informare, Chamber of Commerce Frosinone Latina and Blue forum Italia network.

According to the report, Rome is the capital of blue entrepreneurship with 29,806 companies in the sector, while Lazio as a whole has 34,851, followed by Naples, with 22,943, and Campania with 32,741. It also emerges that, in Italy, the total number of companies in the sector (as at 31 December 2023) amounts to 227,975.

It should be made clear, however, that the study also considers companies in the blue economy (in addition to the shipbuilding industry, the movement of goods and passengers by sea and the marine extraction industry) to be those in the fishing industry, accommodation and catering services, sports and recreational activities, and research, regulation and environmental protection.

According to the report, therefore, "49% of blue economy enterprises reside in the South, but generate less than a third of the added value produced by the entire maritime economy. This is a sign that in the South, sea enterprises are less productive than those in the rest of the country. What particularly weighs on the added value is the different productive specialisation, which in the South is higher in tourism, where productivity appears lower overall than in other blue sectors, such as shipbuilding and logistics'.