If Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner suddenly got camera shy and became recluses, that’s a crisis. If McDonald’s ran out of sesame seeds to put on their buns, that would be a crisis. And without a doubt, if pasta prices in Italy have soared almost 20% since March, you better believe it is a bona fide crisis, and the Italian government is taking it very seriously.
In fact, a crisis commission has been assembled to figure out how to handle the situation. The average cost of pasta has increased to $2.20 per kilogram, and that is affecting citizens in a big way because 60% of the population has pasta every single day.
Pasta producers claim they have to increase the price because they are getting crushed by the 8.1% inflation rate in Italy. They say it is hitting them with rising energy costs and disruptions in the supply chain.
The other side of the argument is that pasta is relatively simple to produce, as it consists of durum wheat and water, so the price of producing the noodles should be about what the price of wheat is, and wheat prices have plummeted 30%.
Hmmm, that’s something to noodle on. Here’s what Furio Truzzi, the president of Assouteni, told the Washington Post. ”There is no justification for the increases other than pure speculation on the part of the large food groups who also want to supplement their budgets with extra profits.”
Rebutting that comment is Michele Crippa, a professor of gastronomic science who told the Washington Post, “Pasta on the shelves today was produced months ago when durum wheat [was] purchased at high prices and with energy costs at the peak of the crisis.”
It looks like a resolution will be brokered soon. The man who led the discussions on this crisis said a significant drop in the cost of pasta is coming soon.
In other words, when it comes to ridiculously high-priced pasta, Italians will soon be able to do what they do best when it comes to pasta — stick a fork in it.
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