Milan, May 11 - Prices of Italian soft wheat flour and durum semolina rose in the first quarter on higher wheat prices, Italian millers' association Italmopa told Reuters on Friday.
Italy imports around half of its wheat needs and exports soft wheat flour and durum wheat semolina, which is used mainly for making pasta.
Soft wheat prices rose 33-34 percent year-on-year in January-March 2007, while durum wheat prices rose 20 percent, according to data from cereals bourses in Milan, Bologna and Foggia, Italmopa director Tullio Pandolfi said.
"Flour prices rose 7 percent, semolina prices rose 12 percent. The semolina price is faring better than flour because of greater demand from the pasta industry, which is related to the strength of exports," Pandolfi said in a telephone interview.
Analysts have said rising European grain markets are already feeding through the production chain, putting upward pressure on food prices and further increases could be on the cards.
Benchmark French wheat futures rose some 15 percent in April on fears that drought could damage this summer's harvest.
Any increases in the Italian flour price may trickle down to bakery products, but the price of a loaf of bread was unlikely to spike because flour only accounts for about 10 percent of the cost of bread, industry experts have said.
Pandolfi said it was too early to give forecasts for wheat prices for the rest of the year.
"An increase in output of soft and durum wheat is expected in the European Union and globally, but it is not enough to make price forecasts, because quality of grain and demand from the non-food sector -- feed and bioenergy -- should be considered," he said.
Italy imports most of its soft wheat from France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Canada, the United States and Australia, while most of its durum wheat imports come from France, Greece, Spain, USA, Canada, Australia and Turkey, according to Italmopa.