“The Covid emergency has triggered a short-circuit on the raw materials front with unsustainable increases for animal feed in the stables where milk wages are recognized lower than in recent years” The alarm raised by the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini who asked the Ministry of Agriculture “to deal with an emergency that has become unsustainable.” The prices of the main elements of the animal’s diet have soared to all-time highs with corn registering the largest increase of the decade while soy has peaked in nearly seven years. According to Coldiretti’s analysis for futures contracts in the Chicago Bord of Trade (Cbot) lists, the international reference point for the futures market for raw materials, corn increased by 74% while for soy the increase was 77. %. And in this situation there is a real risk that there will also be negative repercussions for consumers: according to Federalimentare there is a real risk of raising the price of products on the shelves.
What’s going on? Prandini again: “It is an unsustainable situation with the risk of not being able to guarantee adequate rations for the animals, especially in the face of some proposals to reduce the prices recognized at the barn for milk that endanger the survival of Fattoria Italia”. From his point of view, “the future of Italian farming is at stake in a situation in which the Covid pandemic has opened up a scenario of reduction in trade, hoarding, speculation and uncertainty that drives the race of individual states to essential goods to achieve productive self-sufficiency in strategic sectors to guarantee the population’s nutrition ».
But the problem isn’t just for dairy cows. Assocarni and Uniceb have asked Ancd, Coop Italia and Federdistribuzione to open an urgent table with the large-scale distribution because “it is no longer possible to accept that the value of an animal of excellent quality such as that produced in Italy is exactly at the value paid over thirty ‘ years ago, while on the shelves the products followed the inflation trends of these thirty years, in line with the increases in all other food products ». Breeders under these conditions – explains Luigi Scordamaglia president of Assocarni – can only stop working and this would be disastrous not only for our extraordinary food excellence that would disappear, but above all because it would increase our dependence from abroad for such a necessary product. not to mention the abandonment of vast territories of our peninsula which would be consigned to hydrogeological degradation and desertification causing the disappearance of entire communities ». And Carlo Siciliani, president of Uniceb, adds: “It is essential to start a discussion table with large retailers so that adequate remuneration is recognized for the Italian product through clear and shared pricing systems to arrive at a more equitable distribution of value along the supply chain “.
The increases in the prices of food raw materials and the indirect ones in oil and metal prices “for the moment fall on the shoulders of the food industry – explains the president Ivano Vacondio – but soon they could affect finished products and therefore consumers”. The producer prices of the food industry, in fact, after having recorded a trend of -0.4% last January, rose to + 0.9% in March, while the consumer prices of processed food went in the opposite direction. , decreasing from + 0.1% in January to -0.8% in April. “The result is a squeeze of margins in the food chain – comments Vacondio – further amplified by the fact that sales relating to out-of-home channels have been largely cut and have not allowed the industry to find any recovery or compensation on this front”. And the increases could also affect the products of the milling industry starting with pasta.