The demand for pasta in nearly the whole world is increasing gradually. According to the data of International Pasta Organization (IPO), a total of 13,5 million tons of pasta produced in 2013 in the world. Pasta being a food item which is easy to cook and cost-efficient had a great effect on this. Other important factors in the increase of consumption is the high nutritional value of the durum wheat within the pasta and the fact that pasta being a food which can be prepared with various sauces so that it would be appropriate to palates of almost every culture.
Pasta dough is created by mixing the semolina obtained from durum wheat with some enriching substances and water. Pasta production is carried out by shaping this dough and then drying. Since the durum wheat which is the main raw material of pasta only grows in certain areas of the world, limited the production areas of the pasta. Although pasta production became common due to the raw material import today, generally durum wheat producing countries are the leading pasta importers in the world.
Pasta is one of the most important foods in the world by both its nutritional values and volume of production. Pasta which could be consumed in different ways in each culture, faces a demand which has been increasing over the years. Long shelf life, high nutritional value, being appropriate for serving by mixing it with different sauces for different palates, i.e. being adaptable to every culture and more importantly being an economic food are the leading causes of this increase.
The date this valuable food item was first consumed, is not known. Although it was alleged by Chinese, Etruscans, Arabs, Persians, Greek and even Americans that they have invented pasta, Italians were the ones left with holding that title. For pasta, some dates it back to 4000, some to 7000 and some to 8000 years ago. Pasta was definitely known by Ancient Greek and Romans. The history of the pasta goes back to the time of Ancient Romans. Italy is the leader in both production and consumption of pasta today. Pasta which spread quickly to the other countries in the world, started to be a part of the American kitchen as well by immigration of Italians to America continent.
PASTA PRODUCTION IN THE WORLD
Pasta production stopped being dependent on the climate with some technological developments. Due to this the production which could be done only in the areas where wheat was produced, has now spread to different geographies. From 1945 which was the year World War Two ended, pasta factories were started to be established in the regions in which Italians lived mainly and thus pasta was enabled to be known by the foreign cultures more closely. the automatic continuous pasta facilities which were the invention of Mario and Guiseppe Braibanti company in 1933, were the elements played their role in the industrialization of pasta production.
The development of pasta production technologies have an important effect in the increase of pasta production in the world and pasta consumption together with it. According to the data of International Pasta Organization (IPO), a total of 13,5 million tons of pasta produced in 2013 in the world. Production made by Italy, USA, Brazil, Russia and Turkey consists the majority of world’s pasta production. When we have a look at the production amounts of such countries, we see that Italy leads with a 3,326 million tons in 2013. USA follows Italy which is the biggest pasta producer in the world with 2 million tons. Brazil which has the third place, carried out 1,191 million tons of pasta production. Russia follows Brazil with 1,083 million tons. Turkey has the 5
th place in the world pasta production with 1 million tons in 2013 by increasing it from 606 thousand tons of production in 2010.
Countries such as Italy, USA and Turkey produce pasta for export purposes as well as domestic consumption. However, the other countries carry out their production in order to meet their domestic demand. The great extent of world pasta production is carried out in European Union. The leading producing countries are Italy, Germany and Spain in European Union which has a share of 36,4 per cent in production. Production share is 14,8 per cent in the non EU member European countries. In this situation European continent meets more than half of world pasta production with a ratio of 51,2 per cent. The second continent in pasta production is America. In America continent which meets 38 per cent of world pasta production, Middle and South America have 21,9 per cent and North America has 16,1 per cent. While the 4,4 of the production is being carried out in Middle East, 4,3 per cent of the production is being carried out in Africa continent. The share of the Asia continent in world pasta production is 1,8 per cent and Australia's share is 0,4 per cent. Middle East, Asia and Australia which have a small share in the production, have a great potential for consumption. Thus they are being evaluated as the markets which show promise by means of export.
WORLD PASTA CONSUMPTION AND DEMAND
The demand for pasta in nearly the whole world is increasing gradually. As we have stated before the fact that pasta being an easy to prepare and cost efficient; also high nutritional value of the durum wheat within the pasta and the fact that pasta being a food which can be prepared with various sauces so that it would be appropriate to palates of almost every culture are effective in this.
According to the 2013 data of International Pasta Organization (IPO) the country in which the pasta consumption is at its peak is the production leader Italy. Pasta consumption per capita in Italy is 26 kg. Venezuela follows Italy with 13,2 kg, Tunisia with 11,9 kg, Greece with 10,6 kg and Switzerland with 9,2 kg. The pasta consumption per capita in Turkey is 6,6 kg. Among the main reason why pasta consumption has not increased in Turkey we can count the fact that sauce culture is not yet established, having missing or wrong information in pasta cooking methods, not having enough product variety and not realizing the nutritional values of the pasta yet. As an addition to these, the amount of noodle produced in homes and then consumed is not included in the records also affects the amount of consumption.
When we have a look at the total pasta production by countries, we see that the biggest consumer country is USA with 2 million 700 thousand tons. Italy follows USA with 1,524 million tons and Brazil with 1,191 million tons and Russia with 1,128 million tons and Germany with 650 thousand tons. The 2013 consumption of Turkey was 492,977 tons.
WORLD PASTA IMPORT
According to World Trade Atlas, Global Trade Information Service data, the total value of the world pasta import is 3,059 million Euros. This value is the equivalent of 2,9 million tons of pasta import has increased a little due to the increase in the import in 2011. In 2011, the world pasta import was recorded as 3,2 million tons and this equals to 3,345 million Euros. In 2012, the world pasta import was 3,062 million tons. In the same period, the value equivalent of pasta import was 3,651 million Euros.
USA, Germany and French are seen to have the leading positions in 2012 world pasta import. USA with its 490 million Euro and 360 thousand tons of pasta import is followed by Germany with its 459 million Euro and 423 thousand tons. While Germany is better by means of quantity, USA led by means of value. The 2012 pasta import of France is 340 thousand tons. France which reached to an import value of 397 million Euro, follows USA and Germany closely. Japan follows France with 185 thousand tons and 260 million Euro and England with 176 thousand tons and 213 million Euro, Canada follows with 119 thousand tons and 161 million Euro.
Durum wheat which is the main raw material of pasta, is produced only in certain areas of the world and the dependency to durum wheat increases yearly. This situation causes the countries which have a large pasta consumption level but cannot be able to produce enough pasta to meet the domestic demand to prefer importing. Along with this some pasta producing countries also prefer importing in an attempt to increase the variety.
WORLD PASTA EXPORT
According to the data of World Trade Atlas, pasta export was 3,287 million tons in 2010. The price equivalence of such quantity is 3,487 million Euro. World pasta export which was increased in 2011, was 3,555 million tons and it was equal to 3,820 million Euro. In 2012, there was an increase in the export again and it was recorded as 3,715 million tons. The equivalent in value of the 2012 pasta export quantity is 4,158 million Euros. Acting from reported data causes different figures to be reflected for world pasta import and export. Due to this, the real figures are estimated to be a little more than these figures.
Italy takes the first place in world pasta export. Italy exported a total of 1,721 million tons of pasta in 2010. The price equivalence of such quantity is 1,682 million Euro. Italy which is the world pasta export leader, experienced some increase in 2011 and exported a total of 1,770 million tons of pasta. This export amount in the value of 1,183 million Euros, continued to increase in 2012. The pasta export of Italy in 2012 was 1,802 million tons and the value of it was 1,936 million Euros.
The biggest exporter after Italy is Turkey. Turkey's pasta export quantity which was far different than export quantity and amount of Italy, was increased approximately 200 thousand tons between the years of 2010 and 2012. The amount of the export which was 436 thousand tons in 2012, has an equivalence of value about 241 million Euros. In 2012, Turkey is followed by Belgium with 136 thousand tons, USA with 133 thousand tons and China with 108 thousand tons of export quantity.