Vincent Divella, CEO, together with his cousin Francesco, of the very well-known food company, he never lost heart in his life, not even when his parent, already an established pasta maker, Rutigliano, a town 24 km south-east of Bari, kicked him out of the company because he had dared to ask for something more than the lowly position he had entered. “I had to, or rather we had to, because I was always with my cousin, first demonstrate whether we had the makings of entrepreneurs and then it would show,” as he recently recounted in the program “Storie” hosted on Telenorbe by the historic former director Enzo Magistà.
It so happened that the two young people little more than twenty years old they started to raise chickens and sell eggs"We even foisted some on our employees," he said with amusement. Their parents, just to test them, had helped them launch the business with a loan, and when the kids returned to the company a year later to pay it back, they were told they'd passed the test and could return.
“Different times,” sighs the entrepreneur who, if he hasn't chased his offspring from the company, certainly hasn't given them any uneducated advantage.
All this preamble to say that Vincenzo Divella is used to looking reality in the face, without fear or trembling. Like this stuff of American duties which threaten to bring his company to its knees, beans Everyone and the entire food sector. Pasta is the pride of Italians, who celebrate it today on World Pasta Day, recalling that Italian pasta, with 4,2 tons produced in 2024, is the world leader. But let's hear from Divella.
Divella, you're not on the list of villains drawn up by the US Anti-Dumping Commission...
"I'm not under any illusions; it's just a matter of time. By chance, or perhaps another word that always begins with a "c," we're not on the list. I really don't think that starting January 1st, we'll be allowed to sell without tariffs while others will be allowed to. We can only hope that, as has often happened, Trump doesn't carry out his threats..."
Let's recap for those who missed any episodes.
In early October, the US administration announced that A 107% duty on Italian pasta would be imposed starting January 1, 2026, a rounded total resulting from the sum of the 15% already in place and 91,74%, to be added to those companies accused of selling in the United States at lower prices than expected, the so-called dumpingTwo Italian companies, Molisana and Garofalo, are reportedly already under investigation by the U.S. Department of Commerce; 11 others are awaiting the same fate. Why 91,74%? This is the figure the Department found when examining the dumping margins of the two accused companies between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024.
Why is this happening at this time? Divella in the last conversation with FIRST onlineLast March, when the 15% tariffs had just been approved, he had been quite optimistic, arguing that after all, with a little accounting magic, the numbers would still add up. This time, too, Divella isn't giving way to facile comments, and yet his optimism has been significantly diluted.
Trump, whom I call a clever fool, is doing his job, which is to say, he's serving the interests of the United States. With the tariffs, he wants to reduce the public debt as well as protect the country's economy. I don't know if this is the right path; we'll see, and in any case, the Americans will have to think about it. For us, however, if the 107% tariff were actually implemented, it would be a disaster. We're not talking about a reasonable figure like the one we're currently suffering, namely 15%, which we have sterilized by sharing with American importers. This is unmanageable. The only hope is that we can negotiate with Trump to reach more reasonable figures. But while we wait, I want to emphasize that another problem has fallen on our heads, which I consider more serious, and I mean the devaluation of the dollar, which, added to the tariffs, seriously risks destroying our exports. With a weak dollar, all export products suffer, and ours are no exception. Because we export in dollars not only to America, but also to other countries, such as the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, and so on. "The Divella brand is sold in 120 countries, accounting for 40% of the total product. Moreover, Confindustria has already provided a figure regarding the decline in all Italian exports for this year: with Trump's tariffs, we've already lost 21%. And we're only just getting started."
What should Italy do? What should Europe do?
It seems to me that we are incapable of dealing with this American president, neither as Europe nor as Italy. From this point of view, I'm even more pessimistic. It's as if we were speaking different languages, all the known rules have been broken. I don't even believe our prime minister is preferred over other heads of government. Trump has to tell everyone when he meets them that he's the best, and so on; it's part of his personality. In short, everyone, Europe. (in primis), they appear unarmed in front of an ally and friendly president who punches you”.
Then?
On the other hand, we've seen more evidence of Trump's unreliability on the international front. Russia has become emboldened by demanding what it failed to obtain on the battlefield, namely pieces of another country, Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russian comedians crack up TV viewers, as I recently read, when they call him "the Big Fool." And we're seeing that even in Gaza, things are much more complicated than the propaganda portrayed them in the early days. Returning to the tariffs, that's not really my problem: I export 7-8 million euros to America, which isn't much. And if things get really bad, I might even abandon that market. But the fact is that we're living in a time without rules and therefore very dangerous, a time that Trump has made acceptable.
So she says: either something happens in America that forces the president to change his “muscular” path, or…?
"Or else, on the tariffs, all we can do is negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Hoping to cause as little damage as possible. And for the rest, hope that the forces of democracy have not completely abandoned America."
