Us: Covid & pasta sales

The coronavirus pandemic had a wide-ranging impact on the grain-based foods industry. Barilla America is the Us’s largest producer of spaghetti/macaroni/pasta (no noodles), with sales of $644 million in the 52 weeks ended Feb. 23, up 3.2% from the same period a year ago, according to Iri. Riviana Foods and American Italian Pasta Co., meanwhile, sustained year-over-year dollar sales declines of 3% and 4.8%, respectively. Bastiaan de Zeeuw, president and chief executive officer of Riviana Foods, the North American rice and pasta subsidiary of Madrid-based Ebro Foods, said all of Riviana’s manufacturing plants had increased their output since the Covid-19 outbreak. He also said the pasta maker had no issues sourcing sufficient durum wheat for its products. And while some bakers limited certain bread stock-keeping units to make sure the products most in demand were fully stocked, Mr. de Zeeuw said Riviana was able to maintain production of all cuts and shapes of its pasta products during the outbreak.