Milan, March 18 - Italian millers see their margins hit as they fail to pass on surging wheat costs to final consumers, the deputy director of the Italian millers' association Italmopa said on Tuesday.
Millers, bread and pasta makers have come under fire in pasta-loving Italy over last few months for price hikes seen by consumer groups as unjustified.
"There has been an increase in flour and semolina prices, but it was inferior to that of grain prices," Italmopa's Piero Luigi Pianu told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He declined to say how much flour and semolina prices have increased.
Italy is hostage to international wheat prices as it imports about 60 percent of its soft wheat needs and about 40 percent of its durum wheat which is used for making pasta.
Soft wheat prices have risen in Italy by some 70 percent since the start of the 2007/2008 marketing year, while durum wheat prices jumped 150-170 percent, triggering a rise in flour and semolina prices, Pianu said.
Italy's Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro said on Monday he was concerned about grain price rises and their impact on food products and called for maximum price transparency.
Italmopa's Pianu defended Italy's grain processing industry saying it was "very responsible" in absorbing part of the wheat price hikes, saying that otherwise bread and pasta prices would have risen even more.
"Of course, we have seen a significant reduction of margins," Pianu said without giving details.
Wheat accounts for 70-80 percent of flour and semolina production costs, he said.
Pianu said wheat prices were likely to remain high this year, despite expectations of bigger crops in many countries, and would support flour and semolina prices.
Prices of soft wheat of bread quality were unchanged at 285-288 euros a tonne on Milan's cereals bourse on Thursday, while durum wheat prices were also firm at 530-535 euros a tonne. Flour and semolina prices were also flat.