The paper analyses some promotional activities based on the territorial ongm undertaken for spinach in the production areas of Val di Serchio and Val di Cornia (Tuscany, Italy). In order to understand the role of the "territory" in the promotion of spinach, it was necessmy to study the process of restructuring faced by the production areas over the last decades. Jn this context, the unsuccessful outcome of the activities analysed as emerged from the on-field investigation conducted through open interviews with the various operators involved in the production areas and along the trade channels would suggest a low importance of the "territory" (territorial origin as a marketing leve1). Nevertheless, the "territory" emerges as a strategic "production factor", as a result of the advantages gained by local farms through the long process of knowledge and skill accumulation and the (high rate of reaction and adaptation) of the production systems achieved by means of the high number of relations among the farms in the area. ' Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Universita di Firenze Via Curtatone, I 50 I 23 Firenze, Italy ** Dipartimento di Economia dell'Agricoltura, dell'Ambiente Agro-Forestale e de! Territorio -Universitil di Pisa Via del Borghetto, 56124 Pisa, Italy 1 The Authors wish to thank all the operators interviewed during the survey. Giovanni Belletti has written chapters 2.2 and 3.1, Andrea Marescotti chapters I, 3.2 and 3.3, Adanella Rossi chapters and 2.3 and 4.1 , Massimo Rovai chapters 2.1 and 4.2. This work has been made within Murst 60% research "L'analisi delle relazioni organizzative tra imprese nei sistemi produttivi agricoli" (Universitil di Pisa, Coordinator Massimo Rovai), and Murst 60% research "Analisi comparata degli strumenti interpretativi della realta agricolo-industriale e loro interrelazioni" (Universitit di Firenze, Coordinator Alessandro Pacciani).