Italy holds summit as pasta price soars

Rome: Italy’s government has held a summit to discuss a crisis striking to the core of the nation: the soaring price of pasta.

Industry minister Adolfo Urso called the meeting last week after prices jumped by more than double the national inflation rate.

According to his ministry, the cost of spaghetti and other pasta products rose year-on-year by 17.5% in March against consumer inflation of 8.1%. This was despite a drop in wheat prices.

The meeting on Thursday was attended by representatives of the food industry and consumer rights groups, and pledged to monitor the market and to ensure that reductions in producer prices were passed down to shoppers.

The commission said that prices “already showing the first, albeit weak, signs of a [decrease], a sign that in the coming months, the cost of pasta will drop significantly.”

It’s hard to overstate how important pasta is as a national staple: the average Italian eats around 23kg of pasta each year, equivalent to a 60g serving every day.

Many Italians believe that prices are fixed artificially high. Consumer group Assoutenti puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of pasta producers.

“There is no justification for the increases other than pure speculation on the part of the large food groups who also want to supplement their budgets with extra profits,” Furio Truzzi, the group’s president, told the Washington Post.

“Pasta is a primary food for the Italian diet. Increasing its price would be like raising the price of corn cob for Americans,” he said.

Others, however, noted the impact of the war in Ukraine on global wheat prices, and said that the current retail price of pasta reflected what input costs were for producers months ago.

“Pasta on the shelves today was produced months ago when durum wheat [was] purchased at high prices and with energy costs at the peak of the crisis,” said Michele Crippa, an Italian professor of gastronomic science.

Francesco Mutti, chief executive of the Mutti company, which makes tomato sauce for pasta, also pushed back at suggestions the industry was price-gouging.

“When prices increase, you take upon yourself the risk of losing market share, and that’s something that isn’t good for anybody. When we increase prices, we don’t do it light-heartedly,” he told La Stampa.