The Commerce Department has issued preliminary anti-dumping findings on Italian pasta, with proposed rates of 3.62 percent for La Molisana and 6.47 percent for Garofalo. The numbers are not final, and the notice that announced them says nothing about what pasta costs on a grocery shelf.
The International Trade Administration published the preliminary results in the Federal Register on October 15, 2026. The review covers shipments from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
What the preliminary numbers say
The notice puts the dumping margin at 3.62 percent for La Molisana, S.p.A. and 6.47 percent for Pastificio Lucio Garofalo S.p.A. A margin is the gap Commerce finds between a company’s U.S. price and its normal value. Five other producers that were not examined individually get 5.05 percent: Gruppo Milo SpA, Rummo S.p.A., Pasta Castiglioni S.r.l., Molino e Pastifico and Rummo Lenta Lavorazione S.p.A.
For exporters not covered by the review, the notice says the cash deposit rate will continue to be 15.45 percent. Scot Fullerton, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, signed the notice on October 7, 2026.
For shoppers, the practical question is whether this changes pasta prices. The notice sets proposed margins for importers’ deposits and invites comment. It does not mention retail prices, and the rates are preliminary, so nothing at the register changes because of this notice alone.
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How the numbers compare with the last review
The new rates sit close to the ones from the previous review, which found that pasta from Italy “was sold in the United States at less than normal value.” In the review of July 2023 through June 2024, Commerce’s final results, published March 16, 2026, set 2.65 percent for La Molisana, 7.00 percent for Garofalo and 5.21 percent for the non-selected companies. Commerce’s own page on those results lists the same figures.
Set against that, the new preliminary rate for La Molisana is higher, at 3.62 percent against 2.65 percent. Garofalo’s is lower, at 6.47 percent against 7.00 percent, and the group rate edges down from 5.21 percent to 5.05 percent.
Preliminary rates can move a lot before they are final. Ada Derana reported on January 2, 2026 that the duties proposed in the earlier review, about 92 percent in October 2025, had been revised to 2.26 percent for La Molisana, 13.98 percent for Garofalo and 9.09 percent for 11 other producers. The March final results then landed at 2.65 percent and 7.00 percent for the two named companies.
The reporting put the 13 companies in that review at about 16 percent of U.S. pasta imports from Italy. Margherita Mastromauro, who leads the pasta makers sector of the trade group Unione Italiana Food, welcomed the January cut, and Italy’s Foreign Ministry called it a sign that U.S. authorities recognized the companies’ willingness to cooperate. The lesson for this round is that a first number is a draft.
The companies that dropped out of the review
Commerce also rescinded the review for 15 companies, a group that includes Barilla, Andriani, La Doria Pasta, Pastificio Di Martino Gaetano, Pastificio Sgambaro, George DeLallo Company and The Aldino Group. Under the federal rule for administrative reviews, Commerce rescinds a review when the party that requested it withdraws the request within 90 days.
The new margins in the notice apply to the companies named above. The review is a company-by-company exercise, not a single rate for Italian pasta as a whole.
What happens next and what it means at the store
Parties can ask for a hearing within 30 days of the October 15 publication. The notice gives case brief and rebuttal brief deadlines tied to a later verification report, and it does not state a date for final results. Assessment instructions go out no earlier than 35 days after the final results are published.
Commerce’s rule also gives it 245 days after the anniversary month to issue preliminary results of a review. The cash deposit rate for each company changes when the final results appear, as it did when the March results took effect for entries on or after their publication. Until then, the open question for pasta buyers is whether any final rate gets passed on in a price, and the notice does not answer that.
The notice also says that any margin under 0.50 percent is treated as zero, a de minimis line that none of the three preliminary rates here comes near. Interested parties are invited to comment on the preliminary results before Commerce decides,. The notice is titled Preliminary Results and Rescission, in Part, of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review for 2024-2025, and it carries case number A-475-818.
Planning a grocery budget around rising food costs?
A pasta duty notice is one small line in a household’s food costs. Several programs help with grocery and utility costs, but each one has to be applied for, and each has its own income limits.
The story is about trade rates, and the related job is cutting household costs through programs people often miss. The Benefits Checklist is a scan of 11 benefit programs, including SNAP food benefits at 60 and older, with the 2026 income limits and a 50-state phone directory. A printable tracker comes with the download.
Get the program scan for households watching grocery costs from the Benefits Checklist →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
