Trade Paper Warns Britons To Expect Higher Prices For Pasta, Shortages - Scotsman

[hatrack]

SUMMER evenings spent enjoying a plate of tagliatelle and a glass of wine are about to become a lot more expensive following warnings that supplies of pasta to the UK could run short over the next few months.

A report from the trade magazine The Grocer says the looming pasta crisis is the result of Italian farmers increasingly growing durum wheat for biofuel production rather than food. The report says the price of durum wheat is two-and-a-half-times higher than June last year as supplies have tightened, forcing some suppliers to cease pasta production because they are unable to pass on the soaring cost of raw materials to customers and stay viable.

Last week, chilled-foods manufacturer Bakkavör announced it was closing its pasta plant in Scunthorpe, with the loss of more than 100 jobs, because of rises in the cost of raw materials.

Nigel Singh, UK representative for pasta giant Pasta Lensi, told The Grocer that cost pressures were forcing manufacturers in Italy and the UK to cease production.

EDIT

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Pasta-la-vista-as-world.3786697.jp

[sam sarrha]

1. USA wheat crop harvest down 40%.... we need to start dealing with world over population..

[Nihil]

2. I'd guess that the "dealing with world over-population" will be starting ...

... later this year when the usual third-world famines occur but this time
there is little or no spare food to be shipped/flown in from the West.

All of the photojournalists chasing their little awards will stream into
the affected areas but the viewers will simply switch off even quicker
than usual as they have their own problems to deal with.

Of course, this might not be quite the "dealing with" that some more
idealistic people were expecting but rest assured it will be quite effective ...
:shrug: