Wheat imports into Italy, a major grain buyer in Europe, fell 15 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2008 and imports of maize dropped 12 percent in the same period, Italian cereals body Anacer said on Tuesday. Imports of soft wheat, which accounted for 36 percent of total cereals imports, fell to 3,320,696 tonnes in the January-November period of 2008 from 3,929,681 tonnes in the same period the previous year, Anacer said in a statement.
Maize imports fell to 1,938,904 tonnes between January and November 2008 from 2,215,592 tonnes a year ago, with imports from Hungary, Germany and Serbia taking the biggest hits while imports from Ukraine and France rose, it said. Imports of durum wheat, used for making pasta, fell 15 percent to 1,571,139 tonnes, with imports from Canada and Syria taking major cuts.
At the same time, Italy exported 298,000 tonnes of durum wheat, mostly to Tunisia, Turkey and Libya. Barley imports fell to 535,192 tonnes from 585,293 tonnes. Italy needed to import less cereals this year because output rose thanks to increased planted areas and improved yields. For example, soft wheat output jumped nearly 17 percent to 3.8 million tonnes and maize rose about 5 percent to 10.3 million tonnes, according to the latest data from Italy's statistics agency Istat.
Anacer said Italy, Europe's biggest rice producer, boosted rice exports by nearly 11 percent to 739,471 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2008 as a result of strong sales to Turkey, Britain, Germany, Romania and Syria. Exports of soft wheat flour more than halved to 50,297 tonnes from 114,452 tonnes a year ago. Exports of durum wheat semolina edged up to 51,570 tonnes from 50,869 tonnes. Italy's exports of pasta - one of its best known food staples - slipped to 1,397,103 tonnes from 1,465,149 tonnes.
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