Wheat shortage: the FNSEA invites to “relativize” the rise in the price of pasta – BFMTV

The increase in the price of pasta would only be 12 cents per kilo, or one euro per person per year.

Despite the concern displayed by pasta manufacturers about the threat of a shortage of durum wheat, the president of the National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA) was reassuring Monday about a possible price increase for consumers.

“We must put it into perspective,” assured Christiane Lambert on BFM Business. “If, for example, the price of durum wheat increases by 10%, that will represent four cents more per kilo of pasta. We consume 9.1 kg of it. […] that’s 36 cents a year per person. “

August 16, pasta makers warned about the risk of durum wheat shortage, in particular because of the heat wave that hit Canada during the summer, when the country is the largest producer of durum wheat in the world.

Sifpaf (union of industrial manufacturers of pasta) and CFSI (French committee for industrial semolina) asked in a joint statement to distributors to pass on “the explosion in the price of durum wheat in the selling prices”.

In France, the price of durum wheat has already increased by around 30% over one month, by 110 euros per tonne, indicates the FNSEA in an internal note consulted by AFP. If the price of durum wheat increases in such a proportion over the year, the majority farmers’ union expects an increase of 12 cents per kilo of pasta, or a total of just over one euro per year and per person. on average.

“Pasta is a product which suffers relatively little from elasticity. Even when prices increase, consumption remains more or less stable,” added Christiane Lambert.

The president of the FNSEA indicated that it was now necessary to “prepare for the harvest of next year”, and called for an agreement between the farmers and the French industrialists, “which will prevent the French pastiers from going to run the durum wheat from Canada”.

“Climate uncertainty must lead to other behaviors,” she added. According to scientists, heat waves, like the one experienced in Canada, are expected to multiply, lengthen and intensify with global warming.