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The Italian government will hold a meeting to mediate this problem through a “crisis meeting”. The reason? The rise in the price of pasta at twice the expected inflation rate, despite the drop in the price of wheat.
Italy, as the pasta paradise par excellence, is the location where pasta is consumed the most, and Italians, therefore, become the biggest consumers of these carbohydrates with an average of about 51 pounds per year.
Faced with this adverse situation, in which pasta prices continue to rise, the authorities have decided to intervene in the matter. According to Reuters, Adolfo Urso, Italy’s Minister of Economic Development, has requested a crisis meeting to discuss the situation.
Urso has stated that the cost of spaghetti and other types of pasta is up 17.5% year-on-year compared to the price of those commodities last spring. This will be precisely one of the central topics for discussion by Urso and the Price Early Warning Commission at its meeting to be held on Thursday, May 11.
“Our intention is to reactivate as soon as possible the national experimental commission for durum wheat, without excluding proceeding to the creation of a single national commission, in order to strengthen the dialogue between the actors of the supply chain and for the formation of a shared price at national level,” declared the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, according to the Italian chain ANSA.
In the midst of this duality in which the price of durum wheat has dropped by 30% since last year, and the price of pasta has doubled, Italy is also going through an energy crisis. One that has led to the suggestion by personalities such as Giorgio Parisi, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021, that Italians should turn off the heat source while cooking their pasta.
Parisi estimated that this change could save about $6 in energy costs per year for each person who implements this measure, adding up to a nationwide annual savings of $47.6 million. Predictably, his suggestion won more refractors than supporters.
