‘A fatal blow’: Italian producers fear effects of Trump’s ‘war against pasta’ | Trump tariffs

“It’s an actual pity,” laments Antonio Rummo of Donald Trump’s newest goal in his ever-evolving tariff struggle: Italian pasta. Rummo is the sixth-generation grandson of the founding father of Pasta Rummo, who opened a wheat mill in Benevento in southern Italy in 1846, utilizing the household’s three horses to lug grain from the encircling Campania area and Puglia to provide contemporary pasta.“Demand for premium pasta within the US has been rising,” says Rummo. Appreciated by shoppers for a standard processing technique that ensures it’s going to cook dinner to al dente perfection, gross sales of Pasta Rummo have been thriving.“Our model has grown particularly quick during the last six years, one thing that took us without warning, however which have been are very happy with,” he stated, however he fears the US president’s tariffs might put paid to that.Italian meals producers had thought the worst was behind them when Trump agreed in August to cut back tariffs on imports of EU items to a flat charge of 15%, and had been hoping his pleasant relations with the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, would shield them from any additional turbulence.Antonio Rummo. {Photograph}: Ilaria Corticelli/Rummo SpANot so. The world of pasta, a staple of Italy’s culinary heritage, has been thrown into disarray after Washington threatened to whack one other 92% on a number of the nation’s oldest pasta producers in what the Italian media has declared “Trump’s struggle in opposition to pasta”.Rummo says Pasta Rummo sells for about $4 (£3) a packet, however the worth might double if the extra tariffs are utilized.The additional duties, poised to take impact in January, are the results of an investigation by the US Division of Commerce into dumping practices, whereby international companies export items at costs decrease than within the home market to realize benefit over native opponents.The investigation, pushed by US rivals, particularly focused the producers La Molisana and Garofalo, given their quantity of US gross sales, however by dint of affiliation has left 11 different high Italian pasta manufacturers, together with the family-run Barilla and Pasta Rummo, within the line of fireside.Italy’s pasta exports have been value greater than €4bn (£3.5bn) in 2024, with the US among the many high three locations.The punitive final result is proving tough to digest for the Italian pasta makers, that are all making ready to take authorized motion. Giuseppe Ferro, the chief govt of La Molisana, which has been making pasta since 1912, informed the Italian press the dumping accusations have been unfounded and that he hoped Trump’s authorities would change its thoughts as a result of in any other case “it might be unimaginable for us to work”.The tariffs are considered meant to encourage Italian producers to arrange factories within the US, a method that seems to have led to investments in different industries equivalent to prescribed drugs.La Molisana denied rumours that it might relent, whereas Emidio Mansi, the advertising and marketing director for Garofalo, stated the corporate had no intention of opening factories within the US. “We’ve been in Gragnano [a town near Naples] since 1789 and usually are not transferring,” he informed Gambero Rosso.skip previous publication promotionSign as much as Enterprise TodayGet set for the working day – we’ll level you to all of the enterprise information and evaluation you want each morningPrivacy Discover: Newsletters might comprise details about charities, on-line adverts, and content material funded by exterior events. 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Italy’s agriculture minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, stated the focusing on of pasta was “hyper-protectionist”. “We see neither the necessity nor the justification,” he stated.Ettore Prandini, the president of Coldiretti, Italy’s largest agribusiness affiliation, stated the tariffs could be a “deadly blow” for Italian pasta.“It is extremely dangerous and no person imagined {that a} state of affairs like this might come up, particularly after Europe had reached the settlement on 15%,” he stated.Prandini stated the tariffs have been particularly brutal on condition that the US is rife with merchandise that mimic the names of well-known Italian meals manufacturers.“This can be a actual problem in America,” he stated, including that the nation is the largest offender in the case of producing “Italian sounding” manufacturers. “The market in imitation Italian merchandise is value about €120bn globally, of which €40bn is produced within the US, “ he stated. “This impacts your complete Italian meals business.”