Italians spend 4-B euros worth of pasta in 2024

ANSA, Phiilppine News Agency

Among the innovations of recent years is the spread on the market of 100 percent Italian pasta with national wheat, which sees the involvement of the main brands in the sector. (Pexels Photo)

ROME – Italian families spend almost four billion euros a year to put pasta in their shopping cart, in all its variations, farm group Coldiretti said on World Pasta Day Friday.

Italians, according to the latest Istat data, eat 23.1 kg. of pasta per capita, but spaghetti and penne are also popular abroad with 17 kg. in Tunisia, followed by Venezuela (12 kg.), Greece (11.4 kg.), Chile (9.5 kg.), the United States (8.8 kg.), Argentina (8.6 kg.), and Iran (8.5 kg.).

Despite the difficult international situation, Italian pasta exports increased by 6 percent in the first seven months of 2024, according to Coldiretti on Istat data, with Germany, the United States, and France being the main markets in that order.

But there are also those who are not satisfied with the pasta bought at the supermarket and get to work with flour and a rolling pin to prepare it at home.

According to a Coldiretti/Ixe’ survey, 27 percent of Italians say that tagliatelle, tortellini, agnolotti, and other types of specialties are prepared at home.

It is also a passion that involves especially young people between 18 years and 34 years old, while at a territorial level, it is more rooted in the South and Center, the survey said.

Among the innovations of recent years is the spread on the market of 100 percent Italian pasta with national wheat, which sees the involvement of the main brands in the sector.

The consumption of “tricolor” penne and spaghetti, according to Coldiretti based on Ismea data, represents 40 percent in volume and value of the total purchased in large-scale distribution. (ANSA)