EXTREME HEAT THREATENS PARMIGIANO REGGIANO CHEESE PRODUCTION

ROME, JULY 14 /SRNA/ - Extreme heat in Italy has threatened the production of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, which is allowed to be produced only in five provinces in the Emilia-Romagna region because cows must be fed exclusively with grass and hay from that area.

When temperatures rise above 40 degrees Celsius, cows spend more time lying down, eat less, and produce up to 10 percent less milk, one of the three ingredients of Parmigiano Reggiano, along with salt and rennet.

President of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium Nicola Bertinelli said that it is impossible to obtain milk if there is no rain, because there is no grass and, consequently, no hay either, Reuters reported.

Italy’s Parmigiano Reggiano cheese industry generates an estimated 4.5 billion euros in annual revenue, employs thousands of people and drives the local economy.

Bertinelli, who also runs a dairy farm founded by his family in 1895 on the outskirts of Parma, and other producers have installed fans and water misting systems, but these additional measures have significantly increased energy costs.

Rising bills are also affecting the operators of warehouses where cheese wheels are stored during the ageing process, which lasts at least 12 months and sometimes three years or longer.

More than 500,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, worth more than 300 million euros, are stored in two warehouses operated by the company Generali delle Tagliate in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena.

The company’s director, Giancarlo Ravanetti, said that during this year’s strongest heatwaves, their daily energy consumption increased by around 30 percent.

"To make our facilities as energy-efficient as possible, we have upgraded cooling systems and boilers, improved the insulation of our buildings and increased energy production from renewable sources," Ravanetti said.

Exports accounted for more than 50 percent of the cheese's total global sales last year, with the United States being its largest foreign market.

Each wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese undergoes strict quality checks, including X-ray scanning, to rule out the presence of defects.

Every week, the cheese is inspected by specialists who use small hammers to tap each wheel, listening for signs of possible irregularities that may have developed during the ageing process.