Italian pasta increasingly is made of wheat from Canada and U.S.

Italy, the world's largest pasta consumer, can't abandon the North American wheat used to make spaghetti and macaroni, after smaller plantings and foul weather curbed output in the European Union.

Exports of durum wheat by the U.S. and Canada are booming, foiling efforts by Italy to protect its farmers by adopting country-of-origin labelling rules in 2017, effectively lessening imports. EU production of the wheat variety for the season that began in July fell 10 per cent to 7.78 million tons, European Commission data show, triggering demand for North American supplies.

Italian importers took advantage of U.S. and Canadian durum of "excellent quality" at "historically cheap values," Niccolo d'Andria, vice-president of the Rome-based grains group Associazione Nazionale Cerealisti, or Anacer, said in an email. A second round of imports may loom in April, he said.

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