Pasta is a global staple with production approaching 17 million tonnes a year and consumption of at least 1 kilogram per person in 52 countries in the 2023 comparison. Italy remains the standout consumer and exporter, while Egypt and Turkey show how pasta markets connect production, household demand, subsidies, and wheat supply.
Contents
- Global production and reach
- Per-capita consumption by country
- Italy’s production and exports
- Egypt’s production, prices, and wheat supply
- Turkey’s pasta industry
- Historical industry comparisons
- Household purchasing in Italy
Global production and reach
The International Pasta Organisation’s latest annual comparison reported 17.6 million tons of pasta produced worldwide in 2025. Its 2023 comparison put global production at about 17 million tonnes. These figures are close in scale, but they refer to different measurement years and should not be treated as a single annual series. Both are reported by the International Pasta Organisation Annual Report.
The longer-term change is substantial. From 1998 to 2023, global pasta production rose from 9.1 million tonnes to almost 17 million tonnes, according to the International Pasta Organisation’s World Pasta Day 2024 report. Over the same 25-year comparison, the number of countries consuming at least 1 kilogram of pasta per person per year increased from 30 to 52.
Production is also geographically broad. More than 40 countries produced over 20,000 tonnes of pasta annually in the organisation’s latest 2025 comparison. The 2023 comparison counted 52 countries at or above the 1-kilogram-per-person threshold. Together, these measures show both a manufacturing base spread across many countries and a consumer market that extends well beyond the traditional image of pasta as an Italian food.
The 2024 report also gave an environmental measure for an 80-gram serving: an ecological footprint of 1 square metre of land and 150 grams of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions. This is a reported serving-level estimate for that report, not a universal footprint for every pasta type, recipe, package, or production method.
Per-capita consumption by country
The 2025 comparison placed Italy first among the listed countries at 23.3 kilograms of pasta per person. Tunisia followed at 17 kilograms, Venezuela at 13.4 kilograms, Greece at 12.2 kilograms, and Germany at 10.1 kilograms. The same source is the International Pasta Organisation Annual Report.
The 2023 comparison reported the following figures for additional markets: Peru at 9.9 kilograms per person, Chile at 9.6 kilograms, the United States at 8.8 kilograms, France at 8.6 kilograms, and Iran at 8.5 kilograms. These figures come from the International Pasta Organisation’s World Pasta Day 2024 report.
Because the two groups use different years, the figures are best read as snapshots rather than a strict league table. Still, they show a wide range of pasta’s role in national diets. Italy’s 23.3 kilograms in 2025 was more than twice the 8.8 kilograms reported for the United States in 2023, while Tunisia’s 17 kilograms also placed it well above the listed European and American markets from the earlier comparison.
| Country | Per-capita consumption | Measurement year |
|---|---|---|
| Italy | 23.3 kg | 2025 |
| Tunisia | 17.0 kg | 2025 |
| Venezuela | 13.4 kg | 2025 |
| Greece | 12.2 kg | 2025 |
| Germany | 10.1 kg | 2025 |
| Peru | 9.9 kg | 2023 |
| Chile | 9.6 kg | 2023 |
| United States | 8.8 kg | 2023 |
| France | 8.6 kg | 2023 |
| Iran | 8.5 kg | 2023 |
Italy’s production and exports
Italy produced 3.9 million tonnes of pasta in 2023, according to the International Pasta Organisation’s World Pasta Day 2024 report. Trade data from the organisation’s report on Italian pasta exports show that Italy exported more than 2.4 million tonnes in 2024.
Those exports represented 58% of Italy’s total national pasta production in 2024. Export volume increased 9.1% from 2023 to 2024, while the value of exports reached 4.02 billion euros, up 4.8% year over year. The volume and value changes describe different dimensions of the trade: more pasta left the country, and the reported monetary value also increased.
The organisation expressed Italy’s 2024 export volume as the equivalent of about 80 million portions consumed each day. This is a portion-equivalence presentation of the export total, rather than a separate measure of domestic or international serving sizes.
The European Union received 62.9% of Italy’s pasta export shipments in 2024, or about 1.5 million tonnes. Markets outside the European Union received the remaining 37.1%, equivalent to about 899,000 tonnes. The split indicates that Italy’s export market is strongly connected to nearby EU countries while still reaching substantial non-EU markets.
Egypt’s production, prices, and wheat supply
Egypt produced around 1.5 million metric tonnes of packaged and unpackaged pasta in 2024, while domestic consumption was about 1 million metric tonnes. Packaged pasta accounted for about 60% of total production. These figures and the following wheat and subsidy statistics are from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report, Egypt: Grain and Feed Annual 2024.
Prices in Egypt’s subsidy system were reported for March 1, 2024. Beneficiaries could buy an 800-gram package for 15.5 Egyptian pounds or a 400-gram package for 7.75 Egyptian pounds. Subsidized pasta was distributed at prices about 35% below retail market prices in 2024. Private suppliers were scheduled to provide the subsidy system with an average of 20,000 metric tonnes of pasta per month during that year.
The supply background is closely tied to wheat imports. Egypt’s wheat imports were forecast at 11.2 million metric tonnes in marketing year 2024/25, about 2% above marketing year 2023/24. This is a forecast for a marketing year, not a final reported production or consumption result.
For marketing year 2022/23, Russia supplied Egypt with 8.1 million metric tonnes of wheat. The European Union supplied 1.7 million metric tonnes, and Ukraine supplied 880,000 metric tonnes. These supplier figures are historical and should not be read as current shares or as a forecast for the 2024/25 marketing year.
Turkey’s pasta industry
The available Turkey industry figures describe an earlier market snapshot. Turkey had 22 pasta factories in 2009, and total annual production capacity was 1.3 million metric tonnes in 2010. Factories operated at 52% of capacity in 2009, while average consumption was 5.7 kilograms per person. These figures come from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report, Turkey: Grain and Feed Annual 2010.
The same report provides a short production and domestic-consumption sequence:
| Year | Production | Domestic consumption |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 388,000 metric tonnes | 352,050 metric tonnes |
| 2005 | 566,303 metric tonnes | 403,136 metric tonnes |
| 2008 | 606,620 metric tonnes | 431,000 metric tonnes |
These are historical industry statistics from the report’s measurement period. They show production and domestic consumption rising across the listed years, but the figures do not establish Turkey’s current capacity, output, or consumption.
Historical industry comparisons
Venezuela produced about 363,000 metric tonnes of pasta in 2010, an increase of 12% from 2009 to 2010. Its pasta sector had installed capacity exceeding 430,000 metric tonnes per year in 2010. The source is the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report, Venezuela: Grain and Feed Annual 2011. Installed capacity is a capacity measure, not the same thing as actual production.
Chile’s pasta production reached 130,000 tons in the latest market data covered by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Chile: Food Processing Annual 2006. That total included 18,000 tons exported. The report’s data covered 2003–2005, so the period is not a current estimate. It also reported per-capita pasta consumption of 8.7 kilograms per person per year and identified Carozzi with 51% of Chile’s pasta-sector market share in the report’s latest market data.
The Chile figures are close to, but not identical with, the 9.6-kilogram per-capita figure reported for Chile in the International Pasta Organisation’s 2023 comparison. The different values come from different sources and periods, so they should not be merged into one trend without a harmonized methodology.
Household purchasing in Italy
Italy’s high per-capita consumption is also reflected in household purchasing. In a month measured in 2016, 80% of surveyed Italian households bought pasta and couscous. Average household spending on those products was 11 euros per month. These figures come from the Italian National Institute of Statistics page World Pasta Day, 25 October 2017.
The household figures measure a survey period and average monthly spending, while the 23.3-kilogram figure is a national per-capita consumption statistic for 2025. They answer different questions: one describes the share of surveyed households buying pasta and couscous during a measured month, and the other describes pasta consumption per person in a later national comparison.