Ethanol tariffs and subsidies force Italians to spend more on pasta

From Italy comes an interesting case study showing the need for countries in the North to import biofuels from the South. Italian food manufacturers have warned that the price of pasta, one of the country's staple foods, will go up by about 20% in the coming months. Global warming and the growing use of durum wheat as a biofuel feedstock are blamed. But the deeper reason lies with European and American tariffs on imported ethanol, which allow durum wheat to be used as a raw material for ethanol in the first place.

Italian pasta tastes good because it is made from durum wheat, of which Italy is one of the world's main producers. But with strong demand at home and a growing export market, Italians are increasingly forced to import high quality durum wheat from abroad.

Much comes from Canada and Syria but, according to Mario Rummo, president of the Italian pasta manufacturers association, the Canadians have said they have no more durum wheat for sale until November, because much of it has been sold for the production of ethanol. Syria, meanwhile, has just banned the export of grain. The result will be a price hike of 20% for spaghetti and fettuccine by the autumn for Italians who have long been accustomed to cheap pasta in their supermarkets.

Don't blame biofuels, blame your trade negotiator
Mainstream media now paint this story with headlines such as 'Italians face tough choice: spaghetti or ethanol', 'Spaghetti is the latest victim of the biofuels boom' or 'Cheap biofuels, or dear pasta?', perpetuating the food versus fuel myth. Notice the 'or', as if we are faced with a choice between food 'or' fuel. We all know, of course, that we can have both food and biofuels (earlier post).

If the EU and the US were to drop their high import tariffs on ethanol, the problem would solve itself at once.

Brazil and other countries in the South would compete durum wheat - which makes for a very mediocre bioethanol feedstock - out of the market swiftly, by selling their much more efficient and competitive sugar cane ethanol. The Swedish government has understood this, and has launched an offensive to get rid of tariffs and subsidies that keep European consumers paying way too much for biofuels, and that perpetuates this false dilemma between food and fuel.

It's simply absurd to see that durum wheat is being used to make ethanol, while there are alternatives that are many times more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The energy balance of durum wheat based ethanol is below 2 to 1, and the fuel obtained from it doesn't reduce greenhouse gases very much. Moreover, durum based ethanol is costly, and only possible with hefty subsidies and protectionist trade barriers.

Sugar cane ethanol's energy balance is between 8 to 1 and 10 to 1, competitive without subsidies and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80%. Clearly, there is no match.

In short, headlines should read: 'EU tariffs force Italians to spend more on spaghetti' or 'Arrivederci, farm subsidies', 'European consumers hijacked by unfair trade rules which make both food and fuel more expensive, and which keep millions of poor farmers in eternal poverty' or 'Don't blame biofuels, blame your trade negotiator':
biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biomass :: bioenergy :: durum :: food versus fuel :: subsidies :: tariffs ::

Canadian production of durum wheat has soared in recent years, but it is increasingly being sold as a biofuel to make ethanol which is why the wholesale price is going up. Global warming appears to be one of the main reasons for a decline in production in some traditional durum wheat-growing areas in the Mediterranean.

At present, Italy imports 40% of the durum wheat used to make pasta.

The country's expertise in the selection and blending of grains is the reason pasta manufacturers here give for the superiority of their product and their flourishing export trade.

Picture: durum wheat, a crop that can only be used as an ethanol feedstock if it enjoys heavy subsidies and is protected by ethanol import tariffs. From a purely technical and environmental standpoint, durum wheat makes no sense as an ethanol crop: the energy balance of the fuel obtained from it is too low, and it doesn't reduce greenhouse gas emissions in any significant way.

References:
BBC: Italians facing pasta price rise - July 10, 2007.

Gristmill: Cheap biofuels, or dear spaghetti? - July 10, 2007.