In a long article of the Financial Times, journalists Miles Johnson and Daniel Dombey clarify how the crisis generated by COVID-19 is making regional disparities even more evident in countries such as Italy and Spain. They describe how some companies decided to deal with the Coronavirus emergency and Pasta Rummo was chosen as Italian witness.
The factory in the southern city of Benevento became a 24/7 operation during the country’s lockdown, with employees working extra shifts to meet demand as sales of dry goods surged.
For Cosimo Rummo, the 65-year-old president of the family company founded in 1846, the boom in sales has been bittersweet. His business may be thriving, but others in the region of Campania, whose capital is Naples, have been devastated by the economic damage inflicted by the lockdown.
Rummo has been donating pasta and flour to the poor through churches and charities, but Mr Rummo worries the damage to an already vulnerable local economy could be permanent.
“The government has been too slow in delivering support for small businesses, some are simply never going to reopen. Poverty is going to rise”.