Online sales to help earthquake-hit Parmigiano producers
By MICHAEL LANE
A website has been set up to aid Parmigiano-Reggiano producers’ recovery from recent earthquakes by selling off cheese rescued from warehouses.
More than 600,000 wheels (10% of annual production) of the Protected Designation of Origin cheese were damaged after two earthquakes struck Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region in May.
This cheese is not fully matured and therefore not saleable to the trade but Save-A-Cheese hopes to raise money for producers by selling it direct to the public for £22/kg including delivery.
The wheels, which will be directly imported to the UK before being divided, will be available for distribution in October.
The bulk of the money will be paid to individual cheese-makers while 1 Euro per kg going to the Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortium for distribution to other cheese producers affected by the earthquakes.
The Save A Cheese campaign is being headed up by award-winning artisan Welsh cheese maker John Savage-Onstwedder of Teifi Farmhouse Cheese.
“As an artisan, raw milk cheesemaker I understand how important it is to support raw milk cheesemakers wherever they me be, because they are an endangered species not just in the UK, but all over Europe,” he said.
