climate and speculation overheat prices – Corriere.it

The news of Russia breaking the pact on wheat is not the only headache that is worrying Italian farmers. On the contrary, so far the prices of common wheat did not give cause for concern, given that they were down by 35% compared to last year, cooled by the lowering of fuel and packaging prices. But if you look away from Ukraine and towards international stock exchanges, you realize that other food commodities are heating up. Sugar for example. The contracts for the 2023-24 harvest season, which will begin in October, are currently being negotiated. According to Bloomberg, prices have reached over 1,000 euros per tonne, more than double from the middle of last year. Production for the 2022-23 season was down 12% on the previous one and, at 14.6 million tonnes, was one million tonnes lower than the EU’s initial estimates.

In Italy we had 250,000 hectares of beets, today there are 23,000 and two sugar refineries headed by a single cooperative – recalls Giangiacomo Gallarati Scotti Bonaldi, president of Anb Coop -. We were self-sufficient and defended ourselves well, today Brazil and India have appeared with important productions and we have become importers. Not that it goes any better than the other glories of Italian taste. Olive oil suffers from competition from Tunisia and Greece and on the Peninsula it has to fight against meteorological upheavals and parasites. Just look at the situation of Xylella in Puglia or what is happening between Lombardy and Veneto, where diseases and fungi are causing the fruits to fall before ripening, remarks Lorenzo Bazzana, economic manager of Coldiretti. Result: here too production has thinned out and quotations skyrocket; a kilo of oil originally costs 8.19 euros, +89% compared to the same period in July 2022. All the calamities we have seen in recent months do not pass painlessly, admits Bazzana.

On the Chicago Stock Exchange, soybean futures continue to travel rapidly upwards and on the Bologna market a ton of seeds cost 496 euros, yet another increase after the three consecutive ones achieved in June. Weighing on the world scenario is the dry climate recorded in the United States, which jeopardizes crops. When the government was formed in October last year, inflation was over 12%, today at 6.4. a positive fact that we must make stronger. In the coming days, I will make an intervention on the high price of flights, as far as I am concerned. Already this week we have other meetings with large-scale retail trade, with pasta makers and manufacturers of baby products. The Government is not giving up because it believes that inflation is one of the problems main. This was stated by the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy Aldolfo Urso, speaking at Agor Estate on Rai3.