Obviously when the disastrous terremoto (earthquake) in Emilia Romagna struck, our first thoughts went out to the people directly involved in the event and their suffering. It’s difficult to imagine what it must be like to become homeless overnight, and to live in constant fear of the next violent tremors. But these disasters always have a wider, longer term impact in terms of the financial damage done to local industry.

L’Emilia Romagna is an important agricultural and farming region, and is home to the caseifici (dairy factories) that produce the famous Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan cheese). Once the cheese has been made le forme di Parmigiano (the forms in which the cheese is shaped) are left to mature on tall shelves called scalere for a period of between 12 to 27 months. But when the earthquake struck on Sunday the 20th of May hundreds of these scalere came tumbling down, causing massive damage to what is the region’s most important industry. Here is an extract from a news article that I found on the  internet:

Il violento terremoto di domenica scorsa ha gravemente danneggiato i magazzini di stagionatura del Parmigiano Reggiano, rovesciando e in alcuni casi spezzando più di 300.000 forme da 40kg ciascuna. Le forme cadute equivalgono al 10% della produzione di un anno, e siccome costano fino a 420 euro (se stagionate per 24 mesi) ciascuna, il Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano stima un danno di 80 milioni di euro.

The violent earthquake of last Sunday has severely damaged the Parmigiano Reggiano seasoning warehouses, spilling and in some cases breaking more than 300,000 forms weighting 40 kg each. The fallen forms equate to 10% of a year’s production, and as they cost up to 420 euros each (if seasoned for 24 months), the Consortium of Parmigiano Reggiano estimates damages of 80 million euros.

Le scalere crollate con le forme di Parmigiano

Per poter limitare i danni e recuperare, almeno parzialmente, la grave perdita, i caseifici emiliani messi in ginocchio dal terremoto hanno avuto un’idea: vendere il formaggio “terremotato” a prezzi estremamente convenienti …. Le richieste, infatti, sono state già tantissime e in molti ci chiedono come fare a ordinare e acquistare il parmigiano.

In order to be able to limit the damage, and recover, at least in part, the serious losses, the Emilian cheese factories, brought to their knees by the earthquake, have had an idea: sell the ‘earthquaked’ cheese to the public at very reasonable prices … There have already been, in fact, very many requests, and many people are asking us how they can order and acquire parmigiano.

Tanta gente è al lavoro per recuperare il formaggio, refrigerarlo, tagliarlo e metterlo sottovuoto. Le forze non stanno al passo con le numerosissime richieste. Per tale motivo i caseifici chiedono di spedire le ordinazioni a partire dal 7 giugno, non c’è molta fretta. Le forme da 27 mesi sono ancora irraggiungibili.

Many people are working to recover the cheese, and to refrigerate, cut, and vacuum pack it. The workforce can’t keep up with the numerous requests. For this reason the cheese factories are asking people to send their orders in after the 7th of June, there’s no hurry. The forms seasoned for 27 months are still not reachable.