Technical Abstract: Grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a gluten-free grain that is gaining attention as a food crop that can be used in the management of celiac disease. At present, sorghum is widely grown in many semiarid regions of the world. New food-grade sorghum cultivars are of particular interest in Mediterranean countries due to improved quality characteristics and gluten-free status of the grains. Until now very few studies have examined the grain yield and agronomic performance characteristics of food-grade sorghum hybrids in Italy. A two-year study was conducted to evaluate the performance of eight food-grade sorghum hybrids representing different maturity classes in trials conducted in Southern Italy. The results showed wide variation in adaptation of these hybrids as measured by differences in grain yield (2.35 to 8.50 t ha-1) and other pheno-morphological characteristics. Of particular interest was the fact that many of the early-flowering hybrids (e.g. SP-X303) performed better than the later-flowering hybrids (e.g. ArchX-02). These results demonstrated that hybrid maturity and crop cycle length are important factors to consider in selecting cultivars for production in the Mediterranean region.