Consumer groups stage pasta strike over price increases

Italian consumer groups organised nationwide protests today to draw attention to the burden placed on families by the rising cost of food – especially on Italians’ beloved staple, pasta.

The price of basic commodities are being driven up by middlemen, while farmers and producers earnings remain flat, activists said at protests in Rome, Milan and Palermo.

In the case of pasta, Italians will soon be paying up to 20% more for their daily serving, be it fettuccine, linguine or spaghetti.

Picking on Italians’ staple to draw attention to their cause, consumer groups called for a one-day pasta strike today, not against eating it, but against buying it.

In the capital, a few dozen people protested in front of parliament by handing out free pasta, bread and milk to passers-by.

Pasta was also handed out in front of the Trade and Competition Antitrust authority to help out those Italians who decided to support the strike.

“Prices increase by five times between production and consumption,” Toni De Amicis, a leader of Italian farm lobby Coldiretti, said during a protest in Rome.

“The right recipe is to reduce the gap between production and consumption.”