The World Briefly

May 12, 2023

Mamma Mia!

Italy

Listen to Today's Edition

The Italian government called a crisis meeting Thursday to address the spiking price of pasta in the country, where the staple is held as an integral part of the culture, the Washington Post reported.

Adolfo Urso, Italy’s business enterprise minister, convened a meeting of a new commission that will discuss the increase in pasta prices, which in March were noted to have risen by 17.5 percent year-on-year from 2022.

The commission will examine why the price has jumped and also the role that raw materials, energy, and production costs are playing in the price hikes that have prompted many consumer groups to accuse producers of speculation.

The price jump is more than double Italy’s consumer price inflation rate, which was rated at 8.1 percent in March, according to the European Central Bank, and comes as the price of wheat has dropped.

Italian pasta is produced from durum wheat, whose price has fallen by 30 percent since last year, according to Coldiretti, the country’s largest agricultural body.

Even so, consumer rights advocates lamented that the cost of pasta in April was noted as having risen by an average of 25 percent from last year, with some cities witnessing a nearly 50 percent hike.

Producers say a mix of factors such as high energy costs, inflation, and supply chain disruptions have contributed to the price increase.

While a box of pasta can cost around $2, any issues related to the staple cause a furor in Italy, where more than 60 percent of locals eat pasta daily, the newspaper said.

Analysts noted that treating the price hike as a crisis is symbolic and shows the government is “interested in the quality of life of the citizens, even if the impact is probably much lower than the impact of (price hikes on) electricity bills.”

This story originally appeared in the May 12, 2023 newsletter, Strongman Down.