Direct food sales and, in general, the short food supply chain system, is a growing business. In the actual system, where conditions of farm profitability are poor, this type of distribution channel can be used as a tool to support especially small and medium producers. The lack of robust data on the economic impact of the short food chain system in Europe and the difficulty in collecting comparable data, especially for small enterprises, emerge as a limit in the scientific literature. This paper provides a general SWOT analysis of the short food chain through an extensive examination of scientific literature. The short food supply chain emerges to be an important system to promote a new culture on agri-food and sensitize citizens to the theme of local food. Some other main benefits are the possibility of promoting rural development by redistributing value along the food supply chain and the sales of designation of origin, geographical indication and organic products, an important heritage in particularly in Europe. Excessive bureaucracy and inconsistent legislation are limitations that create difficulties for farmers’ competitiveness.