On October 25, Italy celebrated its 28th World Pasta Day, held in Parma for the first time. The event kicks off a “World Pasta Week” running through October 27 and 28 at the Cibus Tec food-technology fair. Organized by Unione Italiana Food and the International Pasta Organisation, this year’s edition fell on a Sunday, but the numbers behind it hold up all year round.
And those numbers are hard to argue with. Italy remains the world’s top pasta producer, with 4.2 million tonnes in 2025, well ahead of Turkey (2.04 million), the United States (2 million) and Egypt (1.5 million). On the consumption side, the average Italian eats 23.1 kg of pasta a year, still the world record. Tunisia follows at 18.8 kg, then Hungary (17.1 kg), Germany (16.8 kg), and Turkey and Austria (12.5 kg each).
More than 60% of Italian pasta production is exported, reaching over 200 countries. In the first half of 2026, export volumes rose 2.7% compared with the same period in 2025 (1,257,234 tonnes versus 1,224,477). By value, exports had already topped €3.9 billion in 2025. Top buyers: Germany (466,422 tonnes), the United States (315,018 tonnes), France (292,341 tonnes) and the United Kingdom (279,342 tonnes).
A survey by Unione Italiana Food found that nine in ten Italians eat pasta several times a week, and one in three almost every day. Margherita Mastromauro, president of Pastai italiani, describes the dish as “a cornerstone of made in Italy,” while also flagging a less cheerful side: current geopolitical tensions are pushing up production costs across the sector.
Worth remembering next time someone calls pasta a “simple” dish: behind every plate of spaghetti sits a multi-billion-euro industry that ships as far as Japan (67,719 tonnes last year alone) without ever losing its roots on the Italian peninsula.