After housing, food is the second biggest expense for an average Italian family, after housing, accounting for 19% of its monthly budget, according to a study by the Coldiretti farmers' union.
Italian families, the study found, spends an average of 476 euros a month on food and recent price hikes have changed eating habits with an increase in the consumption of chicken and eggs, while there has been a decrease for the traditional staples of bread, pasta and wine.
According to calculations by Coldiretti, the average Italian family spends 26% of its budget on housing, 19% on food, 14.7% on transport, 6.4% on clothing, 5.7% on home furnishings, appliances and services, 5% on utilities, 4.5% on recreation, entertainment and culture, 3.5% for health, 2.1% for communication, 1.1% on education and 12% on miscellaneous expenses. Because of recent price increases for food, Coldiretti said, three out of four Italians said they had modified their eating habits and 40% said they had made drastic changes.
Based on data from the AC Nielsen research group, Coldiretti found that in the first nine months of 2007, compared to the same period the previous year, families had consumed 7% less bread, 4.3% less pasta, 8.4% less wine, 5.9% less olive oil, 4% less beef and 4.6% less pork.
This compared to increases of 6.2% for poultry, 5.3% for eggs and 4.2% for yogurt.
The main cause for the hike in food prices, Coldiretti observed, was ''too many middlemen between the producer and the consumer, increasing prices by an average of 66% compared to 42% in other European countries''.
Coldiretti also cited an extreme case in which the cost of a rabbit from the farm to the table rocketed 430%
