Pasta producers across Europe are facing pressure from consumer groups to lower prices as households struggle with the rising cost of food.
Italian groups are calling for shoppers to boycott pasta products and the French government is considering imposing financial sanctions on food producers if prices are not lowered, the Financial Times reported.
While manufacturers including Barilla, De Cecco and Panazni claim their products are priced fairly, they have been accused of “greedflation” and profiteering from high prices.
In the UK, data shows that pasta price inflation reached 27.6% in April.
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This comes as production costs, wages and raw marerials for packaging remain high.
However, the commodity price of wheat has started to fall, with major UK supermarkets having dropped the price of products such as bread and pasta as a result.
In May, Sainsbury’s 800g soft white medium, wholemeal medium, wholemeal thick and toastie white loaves were reduced in price by 11% to 75p and Tesco swiftly followed, matching the price across its own-label bread varieties.
In the same month, the leading retailer extended the price cuts to 18 of its 500g pasta products including lasagne, spaghetti, fusilli, rigatoni, macaroni and penne, down by 15p to 80p.
Last month, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey called for an investigation into whether supermarkets are profiteering.
While the government has rejected any calls for an investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said it will ramp up its work in the grocery sector to understand whether any failure in competition is contributing to food price rises.
Former Sainsbury’s boss, Justin King has rejected claims that supermarkets are profiteering and has said that the government and regulators should focus on helping those in need instead of considering “interfering in markets”.
