The recent hikes in pasta and bread prices led to a sharp drop in the sale of these products, the Coldiretti farmers' union said on Thursday.
Based on data from national statistics bureau Istat for October, Coldiretti said there was a 7% drop in the volume of bread sales, while the amount of pasta sold was down 3.9% over the same month last year.
The amount of bread sold for domestic use in October, the union observed, fell under one million tonnes for the first time.
The reason for this, Coldiretti said, was a general change in lifestyles in Italy together with the hike in prices.
Coldiretti said the price of pasta in October varied from 1.51 euros a kg in Milan to 1.31 euros in Rome, 1.26 euros in Bologna, 1.11 euros in Naples and 1.01 in Palermo.
Wheat prices, the union pointed out, had little to do with the prices for bread and pasta considering the fact that they tumbled 10% in October, over the previous month, but this did not result in any reduction in prices.
According to Coldiretti, wheat prices have remained relatively unchanged since 1985 ''but since then, the gap between the price of wheat and the price of a loaf has increased by 750%''.
A recent study on durum wheat prices by the consumer rights group Codacons showed prices hit a low in May of 2005, whereas prices for finished pasta products were unchanged from 2004 through 2006.
Codacons also pointed out that the price of one kilo of spaghetti, which had been stable from 2004 to 2006, jumped 27% this year.
