The price of Italian pasta has caused an uproar in Europe recently. The public is dissatisfied that after wheat prices have gradually dropped, the prices of various flour products have continued to rise. Consumers believe that the industry is greedflation, so in Italy, they launched a refusal to buy retail pasta products to express their dissatisfaction and anger.
Taipei, Taiwan (Merxwire) – Recently, the price of Italian pasta has caused an uproar in Europe. People are dissatisfied that the international wheat price has gradually dropped, but the prices of various pasta products made of wheat continued to rise. Consumers think that the industry is greedflation, making pasta-loving European countries miserable. A week-long refusal to buy retail pasta was launched in Italy to express solemn protest.
Pasta is an extremely important staple food in Italian life, but the price has continued to rise in the past two years. Its price soared 17.5% in March this year compared to the same period last year, and soared 16.5% in April, much higher than the annual growth rate of overall inflation in that month, which caused public resentment and government concern. For this issue, on May 11, Italian Minister of Enterprise Adolfo Urso gathered consumer groups, pasta producers, and relevant government officials to hold an emergency meeting in Rome to discuss a plan to curb the continuous rise of pasta prices.
The soaring price of pasta is not only happening in Italy but also in other European countries. Compared with the same period last year in April, prices in France its price soared 21.4%, soared 21.8% in Germany, and the United Kingdom was the highest in European countries with a surge of 27.6%. Under the influence of climate change and COVID-19, the prices of various food crops have shown an upward trend due to production, cultivation costs, and transportation costs. After the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the cost of pasta raw materials increased sharply.
In the past few months, the international wheat price has continued to decline and the overall inflation has also slowed down. The price of Italian pasta still continued to rise, and the monthly price increase rate is twice the current inflation rate. The price of pasta rose as much as 14% in May. For Italian families whose staple food is pasta, the cost has increased a lot, which can be said to be a severe survival crisis. Therefore, consumer groups have questioned that the price increase is a kind of greedflation behavior, they thought manufacturers use inflation as an excuse to seek high profits.
Furio Truzzi, chairman of the Italian consumer association Assoutenti, believes that the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in February last year caused a serious surge in wheat prices, but the situation is different now. Coldiretti, the Italian Homesteaders Association, also raised doubts, because the price of durum wheat, the main raw material for pasta, has dropped by 30% since last year, but the price of pasta has risen instead of falling, which is unacceptable to everyone.
The pasta manufacturer explained that the price continued to rise because the cost of raw materials, manufacturing costs, and various input costs all increased when the Russo-Ukrainian war broke out. They didn’t increase the price deliberately. Moreover, the pasta currently on the shelves is still a product made of wheat purchased during the high-cost period. After the raw materials are used up and the inventory is sold out, the price will slowly drop and tend to be stable.
The main raw material for the production of pasta in other European countries is durum wheat grown in Canada. The price has fallen by 40% from the soaring peak, but the price of pasta is still 18.8% higher than the same period two years ago. The industry explained that the wheat price is not the only factor affecting the cost, but the governments of various countries are still involved in the coordination process.
After Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Economy and Finance of France, said that if the price is not reduced, the tax policy will be adjusted to recover the profits of noodle manufacturers, De Cecco, Barilla, Panzani and other manufacturers of Italian pasta that use French wheat as raw materials have agreed to cut down prices from July 1st.
On the other hand, the local people in Italy, who eat the most pasta, did not get a reasonable response. The Italian government decided not to intervene in retail pasta prices after an emergency meeting in May, allowing it to fall naturally. The decision has prompted consumer groups to express their displeasure and anger by refusing to buy retail pasta. After all, for locals who eat an average of 23 kilograms of pasta per person a year, the rising price of pasta has indeed increased the burden of life for the people.