Italian consumer groups asked people to stop buying pasta on Thursday to protest against higher prices.

The one-day boycott is intended to push the government to control prices of the ingredient at the heart of Italian cuisine.

A man turns his back on a pasta display in Rome to watch consumer activists protesting against the high price of the product.
(Gregorio Borgia/ Associated Press)

Pasta prices have soared recently because of a worldwide wheat shortage. The BBC reported that the price of durum flour, the main ingredient in pasta, has risen by 73 per cent in the past two months, to 65 cents a kilogram.

But Italian pasta producers maintained that it was still very cheap.

"There is no dish that costs less," said Furio Bragagnolo, vice-president of the Italian pasta manufacturer's association. "Whoever decides to strike against pasta will spend more on whatever they buy instead. A plate of pasta probably costs less than an apple."

Rising wheat prices, while good for farmers, have led to higher meat prices and shortages in some countries.

The increased demand is mainly the result of higher production of biofuels —often made from wheat — and increased meat consumption, which requires more feed for livestock, said Francesco Bertolini, an economist at Bocconi University in Milan.

Also Thursday, European Union Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel asked member governments to permit farmers to grow more grains because of the supply shortage.

She wants a one-year suspension of a rule that requires EU farmers to leave 10 per cent of their land fallow.

With files from the Associated Press