December 15, 2010

Italian grain imports increase in nine months

Italy's grain imports rose 9.1% in the first nine months of 2010 on high demand for soft wheat and barley, the national cereal-industry association said.

Inbound shipments from January to September advanced to 8.74 million tonnes from 8.01 million tonnes a year earlier, the Rome-based Associazione Nazionale Cerealisti, known as Anacer said.

Italy is the largest EU importer of grain from outside the bloc, partly because of the country's requirements for durum wheat to make pasta.

Imports of soft wheat, used to make bread and as animal feed, jumped 12% to 3.54 million tonnes. Shipments of barley surged 37% to 647,274 tonnes, while durum imports rose 5.3% to 1.75 million tonnes.

Grain imports in the first nine months were valued at EUR2.93 billion (US$3.91 billion) and cereal-industry exports amounted to EUR1.88 billion (US$2.51), resulting in an industry trade deficit of EUR1.05 billion (US$1.4 billion) for the period, compared with more than EUR1 billion (US$1.34 billion) a year earlier, Anacer said.