We are pasta lovers, and we pay a high price for it

Monday, Jan 12, 2026

Pasta market analysis: production, consumption trends, and pricing issues across Europe and Italy’s cultural significance.

🔗 Read the article on efsyn.gr


[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

The price of pasta does not always follow market laws, despite fluctuations in raw material costs and consumer demand. Italy is globally dominant in pasta production, exports, and consumption, while Greece ranks second in European consumption and fourth worldwide. In the EU, annual pasta consumption exceeded 4 million tons for the first time in 2024; Greek consumption averaged 12.2 kg per person annually. Greece is the fourth largest producer in the EU. The domestic Greek industry is competitive and export-oriented, with exports accounting for about 50% of production. Major Greek pasta companies have shown varying levels of growth in turnover in 2024. Pasta has evolved from simple forms to specialized varieties like whole wheat, gluten-free, and organic options. While the average selling price of pasta rose to €1.50 per kilogram in Europe due to inflation, consumer groups argue that consumers are not seeing corresponding price drops despite falling raw material costs for durum wheat, pointing instead to unjustified increases by industries and retailers. Italian culture strongly associates pasta with its identity, making it a strategic asset to the country’s agri-food sector.


🔗 Read the original article

© 2026 Pulse - Europe beyond the beat


PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n. PO 4500158093.

PULSE is an initiative coordinated by OBCT that has been promoting intensive journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. Its main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting on and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

Additional outlets and journalists are involved as associate partners, including EUobserver , Føljeton (Denmark), H-Alter (Croatia), Levila (Estonia), Rubryka (Ukraine), and The Journal Investigates (Ireland).

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved. It collaboratively produces new journalistic content on European issues on a daily basis, coming in many different languages. The editorial output amounts to over a thousand publications per year, mostly in article form.

PULSE also runs 4 thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, relations between the EU and other global powers, the EU’s green transition, or media and the information society. These networks function as online communities and periodically publish calls for pitches.