{"id":32019,"date":"2026-07-14T00:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/32019\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T00:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T00:58:10","slug":"postcards-extreme-heat-threatens-italys-parmesan-heartland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/32019\/","title":{"rendered":"Postcards: Extreme heat threatens Italy’s Parmesan heartland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

SARA ROSSI and ORIANA BOSELLI, of Reuters, report on how heat is impacting the centuries-old Parmigiano Reggiano cheese industry in Italy\u2019s Emilia-Romagna region\u2026<\/p>\n

Montecavolo\/Medesano, Italy
Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n

Fifty years ago, farmers in Italy\u2019s Emilia-Romagna region used to open the windows in their barns at night during the summer to keep their cattle cool.<\/p>\n

Today, as heatwaves send temperatures soaring to record highs, those windows stay open round the clock to protect the cows, and ultimately their milk, the foundation of the area\u2019s centuries-old Parmigiano Reggiano cheese industry.<\/p>\n

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A grader listens for internal cracks during quality checks at Credito Emiliano\u2019s cheese vault as part of efforts to safeguard both product and collateral after daily energy consumption rose about 30 per cent at the peak of recent heatwaves, in Montecavolo di Quattro Castella, Italy, on 6th July, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Matteo Minnella<\/p>\n

\u201cExtreme heat impacts milk\u2019s quality and quantity,\u201d said Nicola Bertinelli, president of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, who also runs the dairy farm that his family founded in 1895 on the outskirts of Parma.<\/p>\n

\u201cExtreme heat impacts milk\u2019s quality and quantity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Nicola Bertinelli, president of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium<\/p>\n

With temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius, cows spend more time lying down, eat less and produce up to 10 per cent less milk, one of the Parmigiano\u2019s only three ingredients alongside salt and rennet.<\/p>\n

Production of authentic Parmigiano Reggiano is only allowed in five provinces, mostly in the Emilia-Romagna region, and cows must be fed exclusively with grass and hay grown there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t rain, grass doesn\u2019t grow, hay cannot be produced and it\u2019s impossible to obtain the milk needed to make the cheese,\u201d Bertinelli, 54, told Reuters.<\/p>\n

He and others have also installed fans and water-mist systems, but those extra cooling measures have sent their energy costs soaring.<\/p>\n

Rising bills are also hitting managers of the warehouses where cheese wheels are stored during the ageing process for at least 12 months, sometimes three years or even longer.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A warehouse worker rides a lift past towering racks of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese at Credito Emiliano unit Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate (MGT), as part of a \u201ccheese bank\u201d program that has accepted the ageing wheels as collateral for low-interest farm loans since 1953, in Montecavolo di Quattro Castella, Italy, on 6th July, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Matteo Minnella<\/p>\n

More than 500,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, together worth more than \u20ac300 million, are stored in the two warehouses operated by Credito Emiliano unit Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate (MGT) in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this year\u2019s peak heatwaves, our daily energy consumption rose by about 30 per cent,\u201d MGT director Giancarlo Ravanetti said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make our facilities as energy-efficient as possible, we have improved our cooling systems and boilers, upgraded building insulation and increased renewable energy production,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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The region\u2019s climate-controlled warehouses have become institutions, collectively known as the Bank of Parmigiano. Behind their walls, technology and tradition go hand in hand.<\/p>\n

Each wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano undergoes strict quality inspections \u2013 including X-ray scans \u2013 to rule out defects. The cheese is checked weekly by experts who tap each wheel with small hammers, listening for signs of flaws that may have developed during the ageing process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe human factor remains key and is the real strength of the entire process,\u201d Ravanetti said.<\/p>\n

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Holstein cows at the free-stall layout and feed alleys of the Bertinelli dairy farm during a heatwave in Medesano, Italy, on 7th July, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Matteo Minnella<\/p>\n

Paolo Ganzerli, international sales director at food group GranTerre, which posted consolidated revenue of \u20ac1.87 billion in 2025, echoed Ravanetti\u2019s concerns about rising bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf extreme events become longer-lasting and more intense, they will certainly have an impact on both the quantity and quality of milk, but above all they will lead to higher costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There is a lot at stake.<\/p>\n

The Parmigiano Reggiano industry generates an estimated \u20ac4.5 billion in revenue a year, employing thousands and powering the local economy.<\/p>\n

In 2025, exports of the cheese accounted for more than 50 per cent of Parmigiano Reggiano\u2019s global sales, with the United States as its largest foreign market.<\/p>\n

Parmigiano Reggiano \u201chas existed for more than 800 years,\u201d Ganzerli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be the last generation to eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARA ROSSI and ORIANA BOSELLI, of Reuters, report on how heat is impacting the centuries-old Parmigiano Reggiano cheese…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22031,22032,3342,241,19878,5,553,21918,22033],"class_list":["post-32019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-bank-of-parmigiano","tag-dairy-farms","tag-emilia-romagna","tag-europe","tag-extreme-heat","tag-italy","tag-parma","tag-parmigiano-reggiano","tag-parmigiano-reggiano-consortium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}