Pasta prices rose 17.5% in March and 16.5% in April, according to the Italian Ministry of Business, which cited Istat data.
This surge is double the Italian consumer price index, which increased 8.1% YoY in April and 8.7% in March, according to Refinitiv data.
Italian consumer rights group Assoutenti told CNBC that restaurant pasta dishes rose 6.1% on an annual basis.
High retail prices are due to the fact that producers now sell the pasta stock they made when raw material costs were higher.
« This is due to the disposal of stocks produced at a higher cost of raw materials, » Assoutenti President Foreo Trozzi said, citing higher wheat and energy prices.
In March 2022, the price of wheat reached its highest levels in more than a decade as the Russian-Ukrainian War progressed, and both countries are large suppliers of agricultural products to global markets.
Trozzi noted, however, that input costs had decreased since then, and that higher pasta prices were now driven by other factors.
High prices are maintained in order to get greater profits, and explained that prices will only fall in the face of a significant decline in consumption. Said Assoutenti, proposing plans to reduce pasta consumption through a « pasta strike » for at least 15 days.
In 2007, Italians staged a one-day strike against the purchase of pasta when prices rose by about 20%.
Global wheat prices fell 2.3% in April to their lowest since July 2021, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Fortnite before, Italy’s Minister of Economic Development, Adolfo Urso, held an emergency meeting to discuss the rise in pasta prices.
Pasta producers, consumer associations and government officials were among those attending the meeting – with some figures calling for a pasta price cap to limit price rises, a proposal that has since been rejected.
The latest pasta price surveys « already show the first indications of price declines, albeit weak, indicating that the cost could fall significantly in the coming months, » a note from Italy’s Ministry of Business said.
The price of pasta production rose by 8.4% in one year, which is « equal to the average inflation index recorded for consumer goods ». According to a statment by Unione Italiana Food, an association representing food producers in Italy.