Italian consumers on a war footing against higher food prices retaliated on Thursday with a 'pasta strike'.
The protest was organised by consumer rights' groups in anger over planned hikes in the price of staple foods such as pasta, bread and milk.
They said that together with recent rises, these items would cost up to 20% more in coming months.
They urged Italians to forego all food shopping on Thursday but those unable to follow such a strict boycott were asked to shun pasta in particular, the symbol of the protest.
The groups proclaimed the initiative a success, saying that by the end of the day, 67% of shoppers quizzed outside supermarkets in six sample cities had refused to buy pasta.
"This is a great result," said the associations, who also distributed free spaghetti, bread and milk in piazzas across Italy including the square in front of parliament.
Even Rome prison inmates did their bit, eschewing food purchases at the inside store and distributing leaflets in favour of the initiative.
"The problem of making ends meet also involves those in jail," said a prisoner representative.
According to the national statistics bureau Istat on Thursday, the price of pasta and rice has gone up 3% over the past year while bread prices have climbed 4.2%.
The European Central Bank said that European Union food prices in general were up 30% in August compared to the same month last year.
Pasta makers admitted earlier this week that their prices would be going up even more.
The Industrial Union of Italian Pasta Makers (UNIPI) said pasta prices would increase by 12-14 cents, meaning that the retail cost of a half-kilo packet of pasta would range from 43 to 95 euro cents, depending on the quality.
"That's the right price," said UNIPI, justifying the rises by stressing that the price of raw materials had shot up in recent months while pasta prices had remained much the same.
The consumer associations demanded government and Anti-Trust Authority intervention, saying that "the situation is unbearable for many families. Higher food prices are the last straw".
They accused retailers, in particular supermarkets, of exploiting recent surges in international grain and dairy markets to put up their prices to "unjustifiable" levels.
FARMERS SUPPORT STRIKE.
Farmers gave their backing to the protest.
Farmers' union Coldiretti told reporters that increases in the price of bread and pasta had "nothing to do with wheat prices, which have remained the same since 1985".
"But since then, the gap between the price of wheat and the price of a loaf has increased 750%," said Coldiretti representative Stefano Masini.
National retailers' association Confcommercio rejected the charges, dismissing the protest as "unjustified".
They denied that prices had already gone up and said that planned rises over the next couple of months would not exceed 6%.
"That amounts to about 9 euros more per family per month, which is hardly disastrous," Confcommercio said.
Small retailers blamed the supermarkets saying they accounted for 70% of the market and were the ones which set the prices.
The centre-left government has sought to play down the row, saying that there is "no justification for the recent price alarm".
But it has agreed to hold a round of talks next week with representatives of all sectors in the food production and retail chain.
The government argued last month that recent surges in international grain and dairy markets could not influence consumer prices in a "significant way".
It nonetheless urged central and local authorities to monitor price trends at shops and supermarkets and ensure "market and competition transparency".
Coldiretti noted last week that pasta sales had fallen 5.6% and bread sales 6.1% since the start of the year, attributing the drop to higher prices.
