Italy: Wheat and barley imports drop in the first two months of this year

Italy’s grain-import bill dropped 21 percent in the first two months of the year compared with the same period in 2011 as purchases of corn, wheat and barley declined, Bloomberg reported on May, 18.

The country’s grain buying fell to 487.5 million euros ($617.1 million) from 616.8 million euros a year earlier, the Rome-based Associazione Nazionale Cerealisti, known as Anacer, wrote in an e-mailed statement. The volume of inbound grain shipments decreased to 1.68 million metric tons from 2.23 million tons a year earlier, Anacer said.

Soft-wheat imports in January and February fell to 689,270 tons from 834,098 tons a year earlier, the report showed. Imports of durum wheat, the variety used to make pasta, dropped to 196,165 tons from 366,024 tons.

Corn imports declined to 387,632 tons from 549,807 tons, according to Anacer. Barley fell to 104,430 tons from 192,122 tons.

18 May, 2012