The Italians are finding it hard to afford a plate of their beloved pasta, as soaring prices are not only killing their pockets but also their desire to satiate the dish they revel in.
According to the Washington Post, the average cost of pasta has spiked $2.20 per kilogram in Italy, which is consumed every day by approximately 60 per cent of the population.
And in Siena, a city in Tuscany, pasta jumped from about $1.50 per kg a year ago to $2.37, a 58 per cent increase, consumer-rights group Assoutenti found.
Italian outlet La Repubblica reported that the price of pasta skyrocketed 17.5 per cent over the past year, despite the price of wheat — the main ingredient — falling in recent months. The rate of inflation in Italy is 8.1 per cent, according to the European Central Bank.
The national crisis forced Italy’s industry minister Adolfo Urso to convene an emergency meeting of lawmakers, pasta producers, and consumer rights groups in Rome last week on Friday to discuss measures to bring down pasta prices.
After the emergency meeting, the group in a statement clarified that the price rise of pasta was not linked to inflation and asserted that it would cool down eventually by the end of the month.
“Pasta prices are already showing the first, albeit weak, signs of a [decrease], a sign that in the coming months, the cost of pasta will drop significantly,” the statement said, according to CNN.
They said that they would continue to monitor the market closely to protect consumers, and ensure that significant reductions in the cost of energy and raw materials, such as durum wheat, are reflected in the retail price of pasta.
A spokesperson for Urso in a statement said that many producers have provided assurances that increases in pasta prices were only temporary, and had attributed the high prices “to the disposal of inventories [of pasta] made when the cost of raw materials was higher.”
However, experts noted that the supply side issues have been arising due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, triggering inflation in raw materials and as a result, disrupting the supply chains across Europe.
But the consumer rights groups are also claiming that the present inflation trend is also due to corporate greed.
“There is no justification for the increases other than pure speculation on the part of the large food groups who also want to supplement their budgets with extra profits,” Furio Truzzi, the president of the consumer rights group, Assoutenti, told the Washington Post.
(With inputs from agencies)
