The pasta industry, synonymous with Italy, is being pulled eastwards nearer to where many historians believe it began, thanks to a slump in durum prices.

Turkey's pasta exports are on course to jump by 55% to a record 250,000 tonnes in current marketing year, which closes at the start of May, and will rise even further in 2010-11.

Exports of semolina are set for an even bigger jump, of 75%, in 2009-10, a report from the US Department of Agriculture's Ankara bureau said.

The increase reflects the slide in durum prices, which worldwide have slumped far more significantly than those for conventional wheat varieties.

In Turkey, where durum output rose by some 15% to 2.9m tonnes last year, the grain has, unusually, fallen to a discount against milling wheat.

Semolina goes back home

Durum prices in January on Turkey's Konya Commodity Exchange were one third lower than a year before, providing cheap raw material for the country's 22 pasta factories.

These include many smaller African markets, such as Angola or Benin, but with purchases by prized Japanese importers rising by 17%.

Turkey's semolina shipments are made in the main to the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, including Syria where semolina was recorded at least as early as the ninth century.

Popular legend has it that Marco Polo introduced pasta to Italy after returning from China in the 13^th century.

'Price pressure' 

Turkey's domestic durum crop is set to ease to 2.6m tonnes this year, thanks to lower plantings, although steady rains have improved prospects for most crops.

Turkey's overall wheat production is set to rise by 500,000 tonnes to 18.5m tonnes this year, assuming weather remains favourable.

The report follows an alert by the Canadian Wheat Board last week that durum stocks would end 2009-10 at 4.8m tonnes among major exporters, the highest for four years.

 "These supplies and additional anticipated production will continue to pressure prices in the upcoming year," the board said.