The prices of national durum wheat are holding back at the beginning of September, after the surge recorded between July and August. This is what emerges from an analysis on the cereal market carried out by BMTI on data from the Chambers of Commerce and national commodity exchanges. Despite the slowdown, however, prices remain current and remain very high, close to 500 € / t (+ 60% compared to 2020), almost reaching the record levels of the first months of 2008. What is happening? «We are witnessing a scenario that had never occurred before: 3 million tons of durum wheat are missing in the world. For the first time in history there is such a lack of raw material ”, explains Giuseppe Ferro, CEO of La Molisana. Tensions persist in the market both nationally and internationally, first of all the possible reduction of over three million tons for the harvest of Canada (the world‘s largest producer and exporter of durum wheat) and the United States, severely hit by the summer drought.
According to Ferro, this situation generates a significant increase in pasta prices that are already showing up on the shelves these days and that will only get worse in the coming months. It will perhaps be the most difficult year for the sector and for this reason careful strategies must be implemented immediately to stem the consequences of the phenomenon ». While waiting to understand if there will be interventions at an institutional level, especially with regard to supply chain agreements, La Molisana has decided to “intensify storage by relying on a state-of-the-art production plant that processes 220 tons of wheat per day”.