Truck drivers' protest puts Italy's pasta production at risk

By Sara Rossi

MILAN, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The production of Italian pasta is under threat as a truck drivers' protest in the south of the country over soaring fuel and cost-of-living prices blocks deliveries to factories.

Pasta maker Rummo, based in the southern Campania region, said on Tuesday it had suspended production after running out of ingredients.

Almost all major pasta producers in the neighbouring region of Puglia, which together with Campania and Sicily form the heartland of Italy's pasta production, are facing similar difficulties, CEO Cosimo Rummo told daily la Repubblica.

"This means that most of Italy's pasta production has ground to a halt, or is close to," he said.

La Molisana, another producer based in the Molise region, said on Tuesday it had experienced a significant drop in production and had been forced to draw on its stocks of raw materials such as wheat and semola.

Italmopa, the Italian lobby of the milling industry, warned last week that a growing number of factories could be forced to stop production, with effects across the whole supply chain if the protests continued.

Italy's pasta supply chain generated last year €13.5 billion in revenues, the European House-Ambrosetti (TEHA Group) said in a report in September.

FOOD AND PETROL RUNNING OUT IN SOUTHERN ITALY

The government is pledging more aid for road hauliers. After meeting with their representatives on Tuesday, Deputy Infrastructure Minister Edoardo Rixi said a package worth more than €150 million would be made available soon. 

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's administration is also preparing a security crackdown in response to weekend riots in Milan and other northern cities, which developed on the back of demonstrations against inflation.  

The truckers' protest, which began last week with the blocking of roads, motorways and ports in Sicily and the south, is causing wider disruption, including shortages at supermarkets and queues at petrol stations.

"People were trying to grab whatever was left. I had to go to a nearby town, and I also stocked up on flour and the food we consume most," said Zineb Boutimah, 45, who lives in Locri, a town in the southern province of Reggio Calabria.

Elena Lombardo, 78, also from Locri, said her local petrol station attendant had urged her to fill up her tank on Monday, warning, "I don't know whether there will be any petrol tomorrow." 

On Tuesday, the petrol station was closed. 

($1 = 0.8911 euros)

(Additional reporting by Francesca Piscioneri, editing by Alvise Armellini and Keith Weir)