diff --git a/scrapy/contrib/exporter/__init__.py b/scrapy/contrib/exporter/__init__.py
index ab0e9a94f..89649915c 100644
--- a/scrapy/contrib/exporter/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/contrib/exporter/__init__.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import json
 import cPickle as pickle
 from xml.sax.saxutils import XMLGenerator
 from scrapy.utils.serialize import ScrapyJSONEncoder
-
+from scrapy.item import BaseItem
 
 __all__ = ['BaseItemExporter', 'PprintItemExporter', 'PickleItemExporter', \
     'CsvItemExporter', 'XmlItemExporter', 'JsonLinesItemExporter', \
@@ -200,7 +200,6 @@ class MarshalItemExporter(BaseItemExporter):
     def export_item(self, item):
         marshal.dump(dict(self._get_serialized_fields(item)), self.file)
 
-
 class PprintItemExporter(BaseItemExporter):
 
     def __init__(self, file, **kwargs):
@@ -210,3 +209,25 @@ class PprintItemExporter(BaseItemExporter):
     def export_item(self, item):
         itemdict = dict(self._get_serialized_fields(item))
         self.file.write(pprint.pformat(itemdict) + '\n')
+
+class PythonItemExporter(BaseItemExporter):
+
+    def serialize_field(self, field, name, value):
+        serializer = field.get('serializer', self._serialize_value)
+        return serializer(value)
+
+    def _serialize_value(self, value):
+        if isinstance(value, BaseItem):
+            return self.export_item(value)
+        if isinstance(value, dict):
+            return dict(self._serialize_dict(value))
+        if hasattr(value, '__iter__'):
+            return [self._serialize_value(v) for v in value]
+        return self._to_str_if_unicode(value)
+
+    def _serialize_dict(self, value):
+        for key, val in value.iteritems():
+            yield key, self._serialize_value(val)
+    
+    def export_item(self, item):
+        return dict(self._get_serialized_fields(item))
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_contrib_exporter.py b/scrapy/tests/test_contrib_exporter.py
index d4865aafa..27f40551d 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_contrib_exporter.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_contrib_exporter.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ from scrapy.item import Item, Field
 from scrapy.utils.python import str_to_unicode
 from scrapy.contrib.exporter import BaseItemExporter, PprintItemExporter, \
     PickleItemExporter, CsvItemExporter, XmlItemExporter, JsonLinesItemExporter, \
-    JsonItemExporter
+    JsonItemExporter, PythonItemExporter
 
 class TestItem(Item):
     name = Field()
@@ -69,7 +69,41 @@ class BaseItemExporterTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(ie.serialize_field(i.fields['name'], 'name', i['name']), 'John\xc2\xa3')
         self.assertEqual(ie.serialize_field(i.fields['age'], 'age', i['age']), '24')
 
+class PythonItemExporterTest(BaseItemExporterTest):
+    def _get_exporter(self, **kwargs):
+        return PythonItemExporter(**kwargs)
 
+    def test_nested_item(self):
+        i1 = TestItem(name=u'Joseph', age='22')
+        i2 = TestItem(name=u'Maria', age=i1)
+        i3 = TestItem(name=u'Jesus', age=i2)
+        ie = self._get_exporter()
+        exported = ie.export_item(i3)
+        self.assertEqual(type(exported), dict)
+        self.assertEqual(exported, {'age': {'age': {'age': '22', 'name': u'Joseph'}, 'name': u'Maria'}, 'name': 'Jesus'})
+        self.assertEqual(type(exported['age']), dict)
+        self.assertEqual(type(exported['age']['age']), dict)
+
+    def test_export_list(self):
+        i1 = TestItem(name=u'Joseph', age='22')
+        i2 = TestItem(name=u'Maria', age=[i1])
+        i3 = TestItem(name=u'Jesus', age=[i2])
+        ie = self._get_exporter()
+        exported = ie.export_item(i3)
+        self.assertEqual(exported, {'age': [{'age': [{'age': '22', 'name': u'Joseph'}], 'name': u'Maria'}], 'name': 'Jesus'})
+        self.assertEqual(type(exported['age'][0]), dict)
+        self.assertEqual(type(exported['age'][0]['age'][0]), dict)
+
+    def test_export_item_dict_list(self):
+        i1 = TestItem(name=u'Joseph', age='22')
+        i2 = dict(name=u'Maria', age=[i1])
+        i3 = TestItem(name=u'Jesus', age=[i2])
+        ie = self._get_exporter()
+        exported = ie.export_item(i3)
+        self.assertEqual(exported, {'age': [{'age': [{'age': '22', 'name': u'Joseph'}], 'name': u'Maria'}], 'name': 'Jesus'})
+        self.assertEqual(type(exported['age'][0]), dict)
+        self.assertEqual(type(exported['age'][0]['age'][0]), dict)
+  
 class PprintItemExporterTest(BaseItemExporterTest):
 
     def _get_exporter(self, **kwargs):
@@ -78,7 +112,6 @@ class PprintItemExporterTest(BaseItemExporterTest):
     def _check_output(self):
         self._assert_expected_item(eval(self.output.getvalue()))
 
-
 class PickleItemExporterTest(BaseItemExporterTest):
 
     def _get_exporter(self, **kwargs):