Italy's pasta chain generates €14.3bn in value added and 48.3% of world pasta trade

Italy's pasta industry generates €14.3 billion in value added once durum wheat farming, milling, packaging, logistics, foodservice and equipment suppliers are counted — equivalent to 0.6% of national GDP, according to a study presented in Milan and reported by Corriere della Sera.

An ecosystem worth 0.6% of GDP

The research, titled “Valore Pasta”, was prepared by The European House – Ambrosetti (TEHA Group) for Pastai di Unione Italiana Food. Corriere della Sera reports it is the first systematic attempt to measure the entire economic ecosystem attached to pasta rather than the processing industry in isolation. The perimeter runs from durum wheat fields to mills, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, logistics, foodservice and machinery.

On that basis the extended chain generates €5.2 billion of value added directly. Indirect and induced effects on the Italian economy lift the total to €14.3 billion, or 0.6% of GDP. The system involves 143,000 businesses, supports 78,000 jobs and activates €1.6 billion of investment.

Direct chain turnover of €13.5 billion

Narrowed to durum wheat cultivation, milling and processing, the direct chain remains substantial in its own right. The study puts its 2025 performance as follows:

• turnover of €13.5 billion;
• value added of €3 billion;
• output of 4.2 million tonnes;
• around 128,000 businesses and 32,000 employees.

Within that perimeter, pasta manufacturing alone accounts for €8.9 billion of turnover and roughly €2 billion of value added. The decade has been one of sustained expansion: between 2015 and 2025 direct-chain turnover rose by €5.7 billion, an average of 5.4% a year, against 3.2% average annual growth for Italian GDP and 3.9% for the extended agrifood chain. Value added over the same period moved from €1.7 billion to €3 billion.

Nearly half of global pasta trade

The sector's weight is clearest beyond Italy's borders. Italy is the world's largest pasta exporter and, according to the study, accounts for 48.3% of international pasta trade. Exports are worth €4 billion, equal to 5.4% of total Italian agrifood exports, and roughly six out of every ten packs produced in the country are sold abroad. That export position rests not only on the manufacturing step but on raw material availability, processing technology and distribution capacity across the chain.

“Pasta represents much more than a food: it is a strategic industrial chain that creates economic value, employment and competitiveness for the country,” said Margherita Mastromauro, president of Pastai di Unione Italiana Food. Benedetta Brioschi, partner and head of Food & Retail at TEHA Group, said the study reconstructs the extended pasta chain systematically for the first time, highlighting its real contribution to the Italian economic system.

Domestic demand and cost pressure

Domestic consumption remains the base of the industry. The report finds that 54% of the Italian population eats pasta every day and that Italy ranks first worldwide for per capita consumption at about 23 kilograms a year. For 67.6% of Italians, pasta is the food that best represents the Mediterranean Diet.

Investment and input costs frame the next phase. Corriere della Sera has separately reported that Barilla is committing €100 million to a new integrated pasta hub in Foggia, and that durum wheat and energy prices are weighing on the sector, with Garofalo's Menna describing markets as under pressure. For an industry that sends 48.3% of globally traded pasta from a single country, raw material sourcing and energy costs translate directly into export competitiveness.