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Italy’s First-Half Grain-Import Bill Jumps 48% on Wheat, Corn
16.09.2011 09:15 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
Italy, the world’s second-largest wheat buyer, paid 48 percent more to import grain in the first half of 2011 on higher wheat and corn prices, according to the national cereal-industry association.
The value of inbound shipments jumped to 1.8 billion euros ($2.5 billion) from 1.22 billion euros a year earlier, the Rome-based Associazione Nazionale Cerealisti, known as Anacer, said in an e-mailed statement today.
The inflation rate in Italy, the euro region’s third- biggest economy, was unchanged in June from the previous month at 3 percent, remaining at the highest level since October 2008 amid rising food prices. Wheat prices in Chicago were up 28 percent from a year earlier at the end of June and corn advanced 66 percent, increasing costs for importers.
The volume of Italian grain imports rose 6.7 percent to 6.3 million metric tons in the half from 5.91 million tons a year earlier, Anacer said.
Italy imported 7.35 million tons of wheat in the marketing year through June, based on Anacer figures. That would make the country the world’s second-biggest buyer of the grain behind Egypt, which purchased 10.5 million tons in the period, International Grains Council figures show.
Italians include more wheat products such as bread and pasta in their diet than the French, Germans, Americans or British, data from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center show.
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