ITALY: Consumer groups call for pasta strike to fight increasing prices

Consumer groups in Rome urged shoppers on Thursday (September 13) to refrain from buying pasta for a day to protest at a possible 20 percent increase in price expected by the end of the year. An increase in the price of wheat in recent months has forced pasta manufacturers to pass on the cost and consumers are angered that they are always the one to feel the bite. Demonstrators at a protest in Rome on Thursday held up yellow banners showing a sharp rise in prices, and gave away free packets of pasta. "If the price situation in the food industry does not change, then Italian families will not be able to save any money nor to buy other products, such as shoes, clothes, cars", said Carlo Pileri, president of a consumer association called ADOC, which promoted the protest. "The price of pasta is one that has risen the most: bread, pasta, milk derivates, those products keep increasing from 2002, when the Euro was introduced", said Pileri. Marisa, one of the women taking part in the protest, said she was indignant that the cost of pasta, a food basic, was constantly rising. "We are not protesting for perfumes or jewels, but for pasta and bread. It is the government's fault, they've eaten everything," said Marisa. "Look, how many they are, we are forced to support them with our own money, with taxes," she said. Most Italians consume at least one plate of pasta a day and it is unlikely the call to refrain from buying their favourite dish will be followed by many. "Everything is normal, come to lunch time and you'll see everybody will eat. If they won't have pasta, then they'll have rice", said a bartender, working a few metres away from the protest. The jump in bread, pasta and dairy product prices will lead to an estimated annual 7 percent rise in food prices overall, critics say, with further price hikes feared to be on the way. A more than doubling in wheat prices over the past year is to blame, spurring Italy's biggest milling group to raise flour prices by more than 50 percent by year-end. Barilla, the world's largest pasta maker, has signalled it will raise prices soon. All of that translates into a rise of only a few cents on a packet of pasta since a kilo costs well below a euro. But the move has touched an emotional nerve among Italians weary of steadily rising prices and higher taxes.

ITN Source | September 13, 2007

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