Italy plans crisis meeting to address soaring pasta prices: reports

• Italy’s industry minister has called a crisis meeting to address the soaring price of pasta, Reuters reported.
• Pasta prices jumped 16.3% in April, while broader Italian inflation came in at 8.8%.
• Industry bodies have complained after the price rises cost families €25 ($27.60) extra this year.

Italy’s government is convening a crisis meeting to address soaring pasta prices, which surged almost twice as much as the country’s inflation rate last month.

The nation’s industry minister Adolfo Urso has called the meeting for Thursday to mull ways to slow the increase in the price of the nation’s favorite staple, Reuters reported. 

In April, the price of pasta and couscous rose at a provisional rate of 16.3% from a year earlier, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics. The comparable increase in Italy’s harmonized index of consumer prices, a weighted average of Italian goods and services, measured a provisional 8.8% in April.

Pasta, the cornerstone of many of Italy’s most famous dishes and a staple for Italian families, has faced price pressures for the last couple of years linked to increased energy costs and supply chain logjams, elevating wheat costs. 

But Coldiretti, an Italian agriculture group, said soaring pasta prices represented an “anomaly that needs clarification,” given the price of a key ingredient, durum wheat, fell 30% in the year, per local publication Ansa.

According to Ansa, consumer group Assoutenti filed a complaint with Italy’s Ministry of Enterprises after calculating price increases were costing Italian families an extra €25 ($27.60) this year.

The National Consumer Union said until speculation on wheat prices was defined as an “unfair practice,” the price of pasta may stay elevated, per Ansa.