Italy: crisis meeting around the rise in pasta prices
A dish of spaghetti alla carbonara prepared during a competition in Rome on April 5, 2019, on the eve of Carbonara Day. AP - Andrew Medichini
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In Italy, pasta could end up on the table of the National Competition Authority. The price of Italians' favourite food has soared on average nationally over the past year by 18%, more than twice the rate of inflation (8.3% over the past year). And this while the price of wheat has fallen. In Rome, the government summoned Thursday, May 11, the actors of the sector to try to clarify the mystery.
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With our correspondent in Rome, Anne Treca
The waltz of spaghetti or penne labels is not the same throughout the country. In Rome, families have other worries. "The things that have increased the most are fruits and vegetables. That's what costs the most, in addition of course energy bills that have become unbearable, "says a resident of the capital.
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I have to tell you the truth: I didn't realize it. Everything is increasing, so you have to adapt. I don't understand why you always have to be angry," adds another.
It is that between the most expensive and the cheapest city, from north to south, the price difference is 64.8%. Consumer associations suspect speculation.
Farmers seem out of the question because the remuneration of their wheat has fallen. Pasta distributors claim to have reduced their profit margins, in the interest of families.
Producers will therefore have to prove that they did not take advantage of the effects on the economy of the war in Ukraine to increase their profits on the backs of the world's largest pasta consumers. An average Italian eats 23 kilos of pasta per year.
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Read on on the same topics:
- Italy
- Economic crisis
- consumption
- Feeding
- Ukraine
- Raw materials