Italian pasta multinational Barilla has branded the polices of the European Union and the United States to use wheat to produce biofuels as ''madness''.
Speaking at the presentation of the group's 2007 budget, chairman Guido Barilla added that politicians championing the use of grains to produce the green fuel were acting on a ''populist logic'' and that this situation risked provoking a global crisis because of soaring prices for wheat and other commodities generally used as food staples.
''The (Italian) government should seek information on the situation from people who know about agriculture and food and explain the problem to the EU,'' Barilla said.
During Tuesday's presentation, the head of the world's biggest pastamaker said that Barilla had been forced to boost prices by 40% over the past year and a half to compensate for rocketing grain prices.
The Barilla group's 2007 balance sheet saw turnover climb by 3.4% over the previous year to 4.2 billion euros, while the group's consolidated debt fell 178 million euros to 1.26 billion euros.
