Italmopa: 'Made in Italy pasta? Impossible without foreign wheat imports'

"Without importing at least two million tonnes of durum wheat, we certainly could not make all the pasta we make in Italy today. Numbers in hand, the new president of Italmopa, Vincenzo Martinelli, wants to clarify Italy's lack of self-sufficiency in cereal production. The national association of millers has felt indirectly accused by Coldiretti, which a week ago took to the streets in five Italian cities against 'wheat traffickers,' reads the communiqué, 'who are crushing the national product below production costs, forcing farms to work at a loss, and pushing more and more on foreign imports.

Italy, it was also reminded at the last World Durum and Pasta Forum in September, produces over 4 million tonnes of pasta a year, 60% of which is sold abroad. 'We always use all the wheat that is produced in Italy,' explains Martinelli, 'the fact is that it is not enough. We have no interest in preferring the foreign one, for the simple fact that the wheat we import is always more expensive than the Italian one: partly because we have to pay for it in advance, and partly because the on-site controls are all at our expense. The last batch of wheat I bought from Australia, just to give an example, I paid 50 euros more per tonne than the Italian average'. In Italy, on the other hand, wheat today is quoted at around 290 euros per tonne.

Martinelli is not even willing to endorse the thesis that Italian origin is always synonymous with quality: 'That 'Italian wheat is better' is just a slogan,' he says. 'Last year, for example, Italian production was excellent but two years ago, due to rain during the harvest, its protein quality turned out to be poor. Arizona wheat, on the other hand, has a very high quality, as does Canadian wheat'.

And it is precisely the import from Canada that is the other bone of contention between millers and direct growers: 'Enough with this rhetoric that Canadian wheat is dangerous for consumers' health because it contains glyphosate,' says Martinelli, who explains: 'In Canada, national regulations allow the use of this herbicide in the pre-harvest phase, so there is nothing illegal going on. Above all, Canadian durum wheat that arrives in Europe amply respects the limits set by the EU in terms of residues. EU regulations require glyphosate traces to be less than 10 parts per million? The wheat we import from Canada has residues averaging 0.1 parts per million, and often less. In addition, it has a very high quality: when I was buying wheat from Canada fifteen years ago, it had a gluten index of 40, whereas pasta factories need a value of at least 85. Today, after investing so much in research, their wheat has reached an index of 90'.

The millers' association, says its president, has never wanted to set itself up in a position of opposition to the Italian agricultural world, but has always sought collaboration: 'In recent months,' says Martinelli, 'we have worked side by side with the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, and his undersecretary, Patrizio La Pietra, to promote quality Italian wheat. We are ready to remunerate Italian farmers with high prices: we gladly shift to Italy that surplus price that we pay today to secure supplies from Arizona or Australia. We are already doing some supply chain contracts, but for them to increase we need to invest in higher quality products. Then if a pasta maker, who is the final customer of us millers, asks me for a whole year's supply, I must be able to guarantee it to him, and for this I must in turn be covered. But if Italian farmers, when the price at the wheat exchange is too low, prefer not to put their product on the market because they are waiting for better times, then it is no good'.