Italy: The 2024 market rejects durum wheat but rewards soft wheat and barley

We are now halfway through the 2024-2025 marketing campaign for durum wheat, soft wheat and barley, and it is time to make an initial assessment and, if possible, some forecasts for the first half of 2025. At the end of June, the campaign had started with the hope of high prices also in the medium term, supported by a national (and more generally European) harvest that was lower than expected. At the beginning of July, the prices for the Center-North were recorded by the Ager of Bologna, with the "Fino Centro" that debuted at 333.50 euros/t. Already in the second week of July, the cold shower arrived, with drops from 16 euros/t (Foggia) to 10 euros/t (Bologna). From that moment on, except for some slight downward adjustments in the second half of July recorded in Foggia, prices remained almost unchanged until the beginning of October, when durum wheat benefited from some increases (graph 1). Among the reasons for this stagnation is the fact that Italian pasta consumption has been ...