Mama mia! Pricey pasta may be off the menu for Italian families
Leading food critic Paolo Tulio with models Vivienne Connolly and Corina Grant say to hell with the cost of pasta and tuck into one of Ireland's favourite dishes, a plate of spaghetti
Friday August 22 2008
Italian pasta prices rose by 30pc in the first six months of 2008, a sharp increase and second only to that of diesel which rose almost 32pc.
But the Italian Treasury also said that the price of durum wheat, the key ingredient in pasta, had dropped by 25pc.
Farmers association Coldiretti said the difference in price from the farm to the table was some 370pc, adding that there is no good reason for the explosive rise in the cost of pasta,
Coldiretti added that there were also huge discrepancies in the cost of bread, the price of which has risen by 13.2pc.
The body added that it was preparing an emergency rescue plan to present to the government in the next few months, which will involve producers, industrialists and farmers' markets.
Italy's year-on-year inflation rate hit 4.1pc in July -- the highest level since June 1996 -- according to national statistics bureau Istat.
Consumer watchdog Codacons has warned that soaring prices could result in every Italian household paying an extra €1,700 by the end of the year.
- Ailish O'Hora
