The Battle of Italian Durum Wheat
Italian farmers are fighting a new phase of the Battle of Wheat. The struggle to defend Italian durum wheat was exacerbated in July 2016, the threshing period, when quotations plummeted 42 percent compared to the same period in 2015.
Italy is Europe’s leading producer of durum wheat, with a cultivated area of 1.3 mln hectares (ha) and production of nearly 5 million tons (3 million t from 0.6 mln ha, on the other hand, is Italian soft wheat production). But the sector is suffering.
Massive imports from abroad (+315% from Ukraine for soft wheat, destined for bread, +4% from Canada for durum wheat for pasta) and a contraction of quotations of the Italian product to levels insufficient to remunerate businesses, put at risk the survival of 30 thousand farms, according to the dossier of Coldiretti, which leads the front line of the Battle of Wheat.
The farmers’ organization denounces, “Today, durum wheat for making pasta is paid 18 cents per kilogram, and soft wheat for bread 16 cents per kilogram, well below the production costs incurred by farms. From wheat to pasta prices increase by 500 percent and prices from wheat to bread by as much as 1,400 percent.” Numbers blowing fueling the protests of a Battle of the Grain that calls institutions into question.
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