The pasta power Italy is threatened by a shortage of grain

Published 2022년 3월 7일

Tridge summary

The article highlights the significant impact of the ongoing conflict on Italy's agricultural sector, with the rise in prices for common wheat flour and corn reaching 12 percent and 14 percent respectively on the Bologna commodity exchange. The prices of durum wheat, a major import for pasta, have remained stable. Both Coldiretti and the Consorzio Agrari d'Italia (CAI) have expressed concerns about Italy's dependency on imported flour and corn, with Coldiretti emphasizing a decrease in domestic maize and wheat production over the past decade and anticipating further decline due to the common European agricultural policy. The article also addresses the challenges faced by bakeries due to increased raw material prices, utility bills, and transportation costs, and the potential for a thirty percent increase in the price of bread and pasta. Additionally, the article mentions the difficulties in procuring fertilizer and vegetable oil due to the conflict, with Italy currently able to produce only a third of its domestic vegetable oil consumption.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

According to the Consorzio Agrari d'Italia (CAI), an association of farmers with 11,000 members, common wheat flour rose 12 percent and corn 14 percent on the Bologna commodity exchange in the last eleven days of the war. Only durum wheat, largely imported from Canada and used for pasta, remained stable. Photo by pixabay.com The Coldiretti growers' association has said Italy is in close proximity to a global "emergency", importing 64 percent of the flour used to make bread and biscuits and 53 percent of the corn used to feed the animals. Coldiretti recalled that in the last ten years, Italian maize production had fallen by a third and that of wheat by twenty per cent. "The situation will only get worse because the common European agricultural policy will not encourage production," said Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti. Stefano Fugazza, president of Unione Artigiani, a craft business in Milan, told La Repubblica that dozens of bakeries are already threatened with closure ...

Source: AgroTrend