Economic sciences/2.International activity

Natalia M. Lashkevich

Master of Economics, PhD-candidate of the University “G.d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Italy e-mail: lashkevich.n@gmail.com, priorpost@mail.ru.

The analysis Pasta exports of Italy.

Summary

The article describes tendencies of the international trade of Italy of pasta during 2001-2010 years: trade balance; dynamic in pasta exports, major export flows, more perspective markets for pasta; level of food risks. The analysis of these tendencies allowed to admit that Italy is characterized steady position in pasta exports to the EU. In order to prevent and/or to decline the level food risks in exported pasta, Italian producers should consider the involving such quality monitoring tool as integrated tracing system of food risks.

Keywords: pasta, the EU, Italy, exports, food risks.

Introduction

International trade plays an important role for an economy of every country as it represents a significant share of gross domestic product. During the last decade the EU has increased. The following countries have entered into the EU: in 2004 – Cyprus, Czech Republic; Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania; Malta; Poland; Slovakia; Slovenia; in 2007 – Bulgaria, Romania. [1] The expansion borders of the EU leads to the linearization of the international trade and to the improving trade relations between countries.

Considered, that Italy is famous of its pasta and it is one of export commodities, so let to analyse the influence trade tendencies on pasta international trade of Italy during 2001-2010 years.

Table 1. International trade of Italy, 2001-2010 years

Period	Italy - EU-27, ThT			Italy – World, ThT			Share exports of the EU in World exports,%
	Exports	Imports	Deviation (+,-)	Exports	Imports	Deviation (+,-)
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
2001	951,8	9,8	+942,0	1535,0	12,9	+1522,1	62,0
2002	973,7	15,7	+958,0	1563,7	19,0	+1544,8	62,3
2003	966,0	22,7	+943,3	1526,1	26,9	+1499,2	63,3
2004	1029,9	26,4	+1003,5	1591,6	33,8	+1557,8	66,1
2005	1091,9	28,8	+1063,1	1679,7	34,9	+1644,7	65,0
2006	1144,9	31,3	+1113,6	1742,1	36,8	+1705,3	65,7
2007	1169,4	33,2	+1136,1	1772,0	38,4	+1733,6	66,0
2008	1138,3	33,5	+1104,8	1693,4	40,5	+1652,9	67,2
2009	1203,4	36,3	+1167,2	1731,9	43,9	+1688,0	69,5
2010	1215,9	31,1	+1184,7	1792,9	39,2	+1753,7	67,8

Source: [2]

Table 1 includes data about the international trade of pasta of Italy with the EU and “World” during 2001-2010 years. The analysis allowed to admit such steady tendency as the exceeded of exports under imports. So, the Italian international trade of pasta is characterized positive balance. Column 7 of table 1 shows that the EU’ markets are major exports markets for Italy, because the share of pasta exports is more then 60%. To determine major pasta export flows of the EU for Italy, the comparative analysis of the Member States by average exports have done. The ranking of countries is presented at the figure 1.

Figure 1. Ranking member states of the EU by average volume of pasta exports from Italy, 2001-2010 years

The ranking of pasta exports by volume helped to divide State Members of the EU on 4 groups:

- Group 1 (major export flows) - Germany, France, the UK;

- Group 2: Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Poland;

- Group 3: Greece, Czech Republic, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Hungary, Slovenia;

- Group 4: Malta, Latvia, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Romania, Lithuania, Cyprus, Estonia, Bulgaria.

Considered, that the forecast of exports tendencies and the search of new perspectives to increase the export are very important for every country, the 6th degree polynomials were built for all Member States of the EU.

Figure 2. Perspective pasta export flows for Italy into the EU Single Market.

The analysis of polynomial trend lines showed that for Italy the following countries are the more perspective pasta export flow: Greece, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland.

Taking into consideration, that the EU has created a strong food safety control system in order to protect European consumers from bad-quality, harmful and adulterated commodities, the analysis of food risks has carried out. The following results were received:

- In pasta exports from Italy 39 hazards were identified [2003.352; 2003.415; 2003.429; 2004.043; 2004.051; 2004.107; 2004.107; 2004.149; 2004.149; 2004.150; 2004.178; 2004.185; 2004.367; 2004.464; 2004.478; 2004.478; 2004.497; 2004.497; 2005.788; 2005.945; 2005.945; 2006.0008; 2006.0083; 2006.0570; 2006.0592; 2006.0715; 2007.0063; 2007.0365; 2007.0392; 2008.0249; 2008.1513; 2009.0220; 2009.0697; 2009.0892; 2009.1487; 2009.1738; 2010.0316; 2010.0971; 2010.1657]. [3]

- The structure of hazards by share in total notifications: food additives (59%), insects (17,9%), mycotoxins (17,9%); microorganisms (2,6%) and insufficient organoleptic characteristics (2,6%).

- There was no any notification about food additives since 2007 in pasta. So, it can be said that the Italian producers have changed their production technologies and improved dosing systems.

It necessary to admit that all notifications were received after food quality control at the domestic markets, so after internal controls. Considered this fact, exported pasta from Italy is met the European quality requirements. Therefore, such hazards as insects, mycotoxins, microorganisms and insufficient organoleptic characteristics can be occurred in cases of insufficient transport and storage conditions during the movement of commodities from producers to consumers and the distribution via trade operators.

Considered the listed reasons of food risks they can be classified in three groups: A, B, C.

Table 2. Food risks points along the pasta food chain.

Stage-process	Index	Object of food risks
Technological	A	Raw materials. Technological process (itself/directly). Storage at the enterprises-producer.
Technological-trade	B	Packaging/boxing of a delivery. Storage conditions during the transportation, movement and distribution between chains: business processes between producer-wholesaler(s); producer-retail network(s); wholesaler(s) - retail network(s).
Trade	C	Storage at the retail stores/shops – selling – consumers’ storage before the consumption.

Taking into consideration the elaborated classification system of the occurrence food risks in pasta, the following scheme of risk points during the movement of pasta along the food chain is presented in table 3 for identified food risks.

Table 3. Scheme risk points along the food chain for identified food hazards in exported pasta from Italy.

Cluster. Hazards.	Food risks points	Description
Compositions: food additives; ingredients	A	A: technological process (itself/directly) – dosing system.
Biocontaminants: insects	A – B – C	A: storage at the enterprise-producer. B: storage conditions during the transportation, and movement along the distributing chain. C: storage at the retail stores/shops – consumers’ storage before the consumption.
Mycotoxins: Fumonisins; Deoxynivalenol; moulds	A – B – C A, B, C	A: Technological process (raw materials).	B: packaging/boxing of a delivery; storage conditions during the transportation, and movement along distributing chains. C: Storage at the retail stores/shops. Consumers’ storage before the consumption.
	A, B, C	A: storage at the enterprise-producer.
	A – B – C A, B, C	A: Technological process (raw materials).
Microorganisms: Bacillus cereus	A – B – C	The growth of risks along the chain: A: Technological process (raw materials). B: storage conditions during the transportation, and movement along the distributing chains. C: Storage at the retail stores/shops. Consumers’ storage before the consumption.
Control: organoleptic characteristics	A,B,C A – B – C	A: Technological process: bad-quality raw materials; technological process (itself/directly); storage at the enterprise-producer. B: storage conditions during the transportation, and movement along the distributing chains. C: Storage at the retail stores/shops. Consumers’ storage before the consumption.

Source: [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]

Elaborated scheme shows that identified food risks in exported pasta can be transferred by the following ways:

“A, B, C” – the occurrence food risks at any stage of the food chain;

“A – B – C” – the occurrence at the first stage (here: A) and transference risks along the food chain. The level of risks can be situated at the initial level or it can be increased at next stages of the food chain.

“A” or “B” or “C” – the occurrence food risks is possible only at one stage of the food chain without the subsequent increase.

Hence, to protect the products during the movement along the supply chain first of all it is necessary to improve monitoring systems based on the concept of controlling or to involve the integrated food risks tracing systems.

Conclusions

The carried out analysis allowed to admit, the international trade of pasta of Italy is very effective because exports exceeded imports and it is characterized the positive balance during 2001-2010 years. The EU is major trade partner for Italy because its share in total pasta exports is more then 60%. Among Member States of the EU such countries as Germany, France, the UK are major pasta export flows for Italy. More perspective export directions for Italy on 2011-2015 are Greece, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland. Considered that the EU has created a strong food control system and it is also a powerful non-tariff barrier for any country, the analysis of RASFF notifications about the presence of hazards in exported pasta from Italy has implemented. The analysis showed that all 39 notifications were received after internal quality controls, so after the passing border quality controls. Taking into consideration this fact, producers and distributions of Italy should analysis the possibility of involving such quality and food safety monitoring measures as integrated tracing quality systems. It will allow to prevent the occurrence of food risks during the movement of pasta along the food and supply chains.

References:

[1] Member states of the EU [e-source] // http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/index_en.htm

[2] Annuario dell’agricoltura Italiana // INEA, Roma, ISBN 978-88-495-208-1.

[3]Notifications list [e-source] https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasffwindow/portal/

[4] ‘Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards on Bacillus cereus and other Bacillus spp in foodstuffs.’ // The EFSA Journal (2005) 175,1-48.

[5] ‘Bacillus cereus’ // Data sheets Prepared for NZFSA by ESR Ltd. Issued July 2010, 1-3.

[6] Official Journal of the European Union. Legislation. Volume 54, 12 November 2011, pp. 1-216.

[7] Contamination of Pasta and the Raw Materials for its Production with Moulds of the Genera Aspergillus. M. Halt, D. Kovachevic, H. Pavlovich, J. Jukich. // Czech Journal Food Science, Vol. 22, No. 2, p. 67-72.

[8] Cereal and Pantry Pests. Steve Jacobs, Sr. Extension Associate. [e-source] // http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/cereal-and-pantry-pests.

[9] Food safety quality management system as the effective instrument of single market policy. Natalia Lashkevich, Journal «International scientific researches», Vol. 3, Nom. 3-4 (July-December 2011), pp56-62