OH NO: Italy is facing a serious pasta crisis
Pasta is as synonymous with Italy as potatoes are with the Netherlands, olives with Greece, and baguettes with France, right? Imagine a product that symbolizes an entire culture being at risk of disappearing; that is (apart from all the human suffering unfolding now) really quite hard to swallow…
We previously wrote about the sharp rise in food prices, caused by various factors such as increasing energy and transport costs; now shortages are also looming due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One of the sectors that could be seriously affected is Italy’s pasta industry, as it is largely dependent on grain from Ukraine and Russia. The reports are worrying, like everything surrounding this heartbreaking situation.
The little ones are the ones getting hit
There are already two pasta brands also sold in the Netherlands that have had to halt production due to problems with the supply of grain: the relatively small companies Rummo and La Molisana. These problems are partly related to national transport disputes and partly to international supply chains.
Michelin is always expensive
Particularly in southern Italy, truck drivers have been on strike for days, blocking provincial roads. The drivers are protesting against high fuel prices and the ever-rising costs of maintaining their trucks, which they have to pay for themselves. As they put it in the Algemeen Dagblad: “A Michelin tire now costs 100 euros more than before; this is unsustainable. Hitting the road costs us money.”
Will this grain weather the storm?
In addition, there are major problems because grain from Russia and Ukraine is not arriving, a large portion of which is used to make Italian pasta. According to Vicenzo Divella, director of one of Italy’s largest pasta and biscuit manufacturers, 3,000 tons of grain are stuck in the port of Rostov, Russia, and it is unknown whether, and if so when, it will be shipped.
A flour trader in Naples told the local newspaper Il Mattino that he has only enough stock left for another month. “Then it’s gone.”
Read also:
- These amazing grandmothers can all still teach us a thing or two about pasta
- These supermarket labels are seriously misleading you
- Italians are furious on Twitter: THIS IS NOT PASTA
Source: AD
