why does the price go up while the price of wheat goes down? – Corriere.it

Pasta costs more and more: the average price in March reached around 2.13 euros per kilogram, with an increase of 25.3% compared to last year when the price lists averaged 1.70 euros. Coldiretti was one of the first to denounce the price increases. «It is unacceptable that in the face of the 18% increase in the consumer price of pasta detected by Istat in the last year, the national durum wheat needed to produce it is instead underpaid to farmers by 30% less, in the same period» direct farmers say, asking the government to immediately adjust Made in Italy wheat quotations to support production. “The industry confesses that it pays 10% less for Italian wheat than foreign wheat which often comes from countries such as Canada where it is grown using glyphosate in the pre-harvest phase according to methods prohibited in Italy”, underlines the association regarding the declarations of Unione Italiana Food which would confirm the speculations in progress on the Italian wheat destined for the production of pasta.

The map of Absoutenti

Assoutenti has drawn up a map of expensive pasta in Italy and has decided to contact the guarantor for price surveillance to clarify the soaring cost of pasta on supermarket shelves. The association’s data shows that Ancona is the Italian city with the highest price, while Cosenza is the cheapest. In second position we find Modena (2.41 euros) followed by Cagliari (2.40 euros), Bologna (2.39 euros) and Genoa (2.38 euros). «Only 12 Italian provinces today have average pasta price lists of less than 2 euros per kg, and between the most expensive city and the least expensive one (Ancona and Cosenza) the price difference is 64.8%, equal to almost 1 euro in more per kilogram. – Assoutenti denounces – If you compare the current prices with those of March 2022, it turns out that the heaviest price increases are recorded in various provinces of Tuscany: the record belongs to Siena ».

Codacons: “Ready to appeal to the Antitrust”

Codacons, following the reports of speculation launched by Coldiretti, let it be known that it intends to initiate a complaint to the Competition Authority and the criminal judiciary so that they ascertain possible offenses on the trend of the price lists. «Today, pasta is on average 18.2% more expensive than last year, with repercussions of an average of +25.5 euros per year per family – says the president of Codacons Carlo Rienzi – Increases in price lists which, however, do not seem justified by the trend in wheat prices. It is therefore necessary to verify what causes such strong increases in price lists, and whether there are anomalies on the market aimed at keeping the retail prices of a product very present on Italian tables high, to the point that every citizen consumes about 23 kilos of pasta per year”.