A total of 150,000 tonnes of Parmigiano Reggiano PDO cheese was produced in 2019, 1.47% more than the previous year, according to the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano.
This represents the highest production level in the consortium's history and amounts to a turnover of €2.6 billion.
Market Value
Over a three year period, the market value for Parmigiano Reggiano has risen from €8.60/kg in 2016 to €10.75/kg in 2019 (+25%).
Italy accounts for 59% of sales in volume terms, with the percentage of sales in other markets increasing by 4.3% year-on-year
France is the leading export market (accounting for 21% of total exports), followed by the USA (20.9%), Germany (17.8%), the UK (12.3%) and Canada (3.9%).
Sales growth was registered in France (+2.2%), the UK (+2.7%), Germany (+6.7%%), Switzerland (+16.3%) and the US (+12.9%).
New markets also grew, such as Australia (+21.3%), China (+36.4%) and Arab countries (+2.9%), while Canada saw a slowdown of -26.5%) due to adjustments to the CETA trading agreement.
Strong Start To 2020
In the first two months of 2020, before the COVID-19 epidemic hit, Parmigiano Reggiano recorded an increase in sales volumes, particularly in the large-scale retail sector, where growth was close to +20%.
However, at the same time, the price trend was less positive, as the wholesale price in April was just over €8/kg compared to €10.75/kg in 2019.
The consortium said that it expects orders from the EU, North America and Canada to drop off in the coming months due to the coronavirus crisis, particularly from small to medium stores and the HoReCa channel.
According to consortium president Nicola Bertinelli, the group's marketing plan for 2020 has been reviewed, adding that measures are needed to slow down production, “which is currently increasing excessively”, as well as actions in the HoReCa channel “to restart a market segment that has completely stopped".
Protecting The Name
Elsewhere, the consortium recently won a lawsuit against Campbell Soup Company, with the latter agreeing to remove any reference to the Italian cheese from the labels of its products.
Campbell’s Prego line of sauces featured portions of cheese with the well-known dots that are imprinted at the origin on every Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
For this reason, the Consortium requested the company to remove the images, noting that this mark of origin can only be applied to the authentic Italian product.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
