Italy queen of pasta, exported more than 2 million tonnes in 2024. But US market now at risk

Brussels – In 2024, 6 million tonnes of pasta worth €9.1 billion were produced throughout the Union. More than two-thirds—4.1 million tonnes—in Italy, which is confirmed as the undisputed queen of the famous first course. Less than half remains on Italian tables: exports reached 2.2 million tonnes. 

The EU Statistical Office has taken a snapshot of the supply chain on the eve of World Pasta Day. After Italy, Spain is currently the second-largest producer in the Old Continent, with 6 per cent of the total (367 thousand tonnes), and Germany is third, with 5 per cent (290 thousand tonnes). According toEurostat data, most of the EU countries’ pasta exports go to the single market, but also overseas and across the Atlantic: the United Kingdom and the United States account for 25 and 23 per cent respectively of EU pasta exports.

As for Italy, in 2024 pasta exports to the United States—the world’s second-largest buyer after Germany—were worth €671 million. According to an analysis by Coldiretti (Italy’s main agricultural organisation), Italy shipped 281,000 tonnes of pasta across the Atlantic. A market that has been growing steadily in recent years, which has already recorded a drop of 21 per cent in the first month after Donald Trump imposed the 15 per cent tariffs on European goods, and which now risks an abrupt halt, threatened by further tariffs of up to 91.74 per cent from 1 January 2026. 

At the beginning of October, in fact, the US Department of Commerce published the preliminary outcome of the anti-dumping investigation into several Italian pasta brands, which, according to the US administration, were found guilty of exporting at prices below market levels. Washington plans to impose a retroactive anti-dumping tariff of 91.74 per cent on 13 Belpaese brands—including La Molisana, Garofalo, Rummo, and Liguori—which would be in addition to the unilateral 15 per cent tariff negotiated at the EU level.