Will you able to afford your favorite pasta dish in the new year? A local Italian specialty store is worried about sticker shock.
Will you be able to afford your favorite pasta dish in 2026? A proposed tariff on Italian pasta that could take effect in January may cause you to lose your appetite.
Vally Graham, the general manager of Olio2go, a specialty Italian store in Fairfax County, Virginia, says if the tariff takes effect, it will jack up prices significantly.
“If right now, my pasta costs, I don’t know, $10 for a pack of pasta, it will cost almost closer to 30 even $40,” Graham said.
President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a new import tax of 107% on 13 of Italy’s largest pasta exporters.
“It will become such a luxury item that a lot of people won’t be able to afford it,” Graham said.
To try and counter the effects of the potential tariff, Graham said she’s stocking up on pasta from her suppliers in Italy. She’s trying to buy enough to last in for an entire year.
“By mid-December, I should get a full container of that. That’s pretty much my strategy,” she said.
Customers at Olio2go had a similar strategy when the Trump administration started to impose tariffs on other imported items she sells at the store. However, Graham said now sales have slowed down as people are watching their money more closely.
“It’s not that great, but we are trying to navigate through it by giving them an extra promotion,” she said.
Graham said she’s hopeful prices will go back down to where they were before the tariffs, because it’s not just about selling pasta and other items from Italy, it’s also about helping her customers recapture joy.
“It’s beautiful to help people rediscover a pasta they tasted in Italy traveling,” she said.
She said she built her business to give her customers “a piece of what they lived.”
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