Parma, Italy, May 4 - The world's largest pasta producer Barilla expects to gradually increase purchases of durum wheat to boost sales of its famous blue packages of spaghetti and other pasta, the firm's CEO said on Thursday.
"(Durum wheat) acquisitions are growing as we sell more and more pasta. It is not a dramatic growth, just by several percentage points," Barilla Chief Executive Gianluca Bolla told Reuters.
He did not give a specific forecast.
Unlisted Barilla buys about 1,300,000 tonnes of durum wheat a year making about 90 percent of all purchases in Europe -- mostly in Italy and also in France, Spain and Greece -- with the rest bought in the United States and Australia.
Bolla said Barilla has been monitoring Middle Asian grain markets, in particular Syria, for possible durum wheat acquisitions but so far made no purchases there.
The Italian pasta maker is also keeping an eye on Kazakh, Russian and Ukrainian durum offers but has found the quality not high enough to meet its standards, Bolla said.
In Italy, Barilla will open a huge mill by the end of 2007 which will process up to 900 tonnes of grain a day and will allow the company to increase its own output of flour to 70 percent from 50 percent now, he said.
Guido Barilla, chairman of the family-run maker of pasta and bakery products, said Europe and the United States remain the key markets for the group, but Russia -- where consumer demand is booming -- is gaining more and more importance.
Barilla operates two plants in Russia which make soft bread and sponge cakes under Harry's brand and may consider opening a pasta making plant, but not in the short-term, the chairman said.
Italy accounts for 68 percent of the group turnover, the rest of Europe 19 percent. The US market makes 9 percent of revenues and other countries account for 4 percent.
Barilla is looking at the Chinese market, which cannot be ignored "because of its size and rapid growth," but does not have any expansion plans on the table, the chairman said.
"Expansion in Russia has required a lot of energy. For now, China is a bit distant, not because we are not interested but because we have other priorities," Guido Barilla told Reuters.
Barilla itself does not plan to list its shares on the market or invite outside investors, he said.