In recent decades the role of agriculture has undergone a profound review: besides providing produce for the whole community, agriculture is asked to offer social and environmental services; moreover, the agri-food company is every day more oriented towards the research of product quality, i.e. the intrinsic healthiness and the ability to represent the interests and needs of the stakeholders involved. In such a fragmented sector, where companies are often family-run (and therefore too small to deal with market constraints), the degree to which they are involved in the supply chain is therefore key to implement the principles of social responsibility. To this extent, the Italian zoo-technical, fruit and vegetable sectors described in the publication offer an example of CSR at the supply chain level.

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