ROME The price of pasta, the staple of the Italian diet, is going up by 20 per cent. Manufacturers blamed a disruption in supplies of durum wheat, which is used to make pasta, with Italy now importing 40 per cent of its requirements. Syria has banned exports of durum after a poor harvest due to a drought and Canada is diverting supplies to meet a surge in demand for ethanol as a biofuel. There has also been a shortfall in production in Italy because of adverse weather conditions.
At Da Romolo trattoria, near Castel Sant’Angelo, one diner contemplating a large mound of seafood fettuccine said he would not be put off his daily indulgence: “Pasta is pasta, you can’t live without it.” Some nutritionists, however, said Italians should in any case eat less pasta, which made them overweight. Girolamo Sirchia, a former Health Minister, said that Italians often ate up to 180g of pasta in a single meal when half that amount was “more than enough”.