An overall increase in sales of 2.38%, driven above all by the growth in exports, is the figure that sums up the success of Grana Padano Dop also in 2022, the most consumed protected designation of origin product in the world, with a production of 5,212,103 forms. This can be read in the BoD's report illustrated during the General Assembly of the Protection Consortium, which was held at the Montichiari Fair Center (Bs).

“Last year we hypothesized a good repositioning of the value of Grana Padano Dop, but we hadn't ventured to reach the unprecedented levels reached in the second half of 2022 – said Renato Zaghini, president of the Protection Consortium -. This goal has allowed a significant impact on the territory, rewarding the efforts of the operators. In particular, the push for grated cheese was particularly significant, especially abroad, which grew overall by 10.2%".

The Grana Padano Dop supply chain was thus able to face and overcome the substantial increases in production costs and sometimes difficult relationships with the large-scale distribution. "However, we can say once again that the Grana Padano supply chain, from the stable to the warehouse, was clearly the most profitable in the Italian dairy sector - declared Zaghini - excluding only 20% of Italian milk that does not include silage" . In fact, against a -0.43% of production, there was a +24% of the value of production amounting to 1.7 billion euros ex warehouse and even a +26% in consumption with 3.2 billion euros EUR.

“No Italian dairy sector has performed as well as Grana Padano – explained the director general of the Consortium, Stefano Berni, illustrating the report of the Board of Directors in detail – This has allowed the supply chain to bring an additional income of around 300 million euros compared to other milk destinations for the benefit of the 50,000 people involved in the system, for a total production value of one billion and 700 million euros. Furthermore, the raw material destined for Grana Padano had in 2022 a plus in valorisation of about 20% higher than the other destinations of homogeneous milk, i.e. that produced by cows also fed with corn silage and which constitutes about 80% of the cow's milk produced in Italy".

The renewed promotional campaign entrusted to Kpmg was decisive in the growth, which brought the claim "An Italian emotion" both on the national media and on the main foreign markets, with a budget of 42.8 million euros and destined to rise to 43.3 million in 2023. Finally, Zaghini identified three threats to Grana Padano in synthetic food, Nutriscore and Italian Sounding. But it has indicated just as many objectives to farmers and dairies. “Environmental sustainability, product wholesomeness and animal welfare are the three inevitable new frontiers and whoever arrives first and quickly to integrate and communicate these factors in the production process will be rewarded by the world market. We are on this road, we started as pioneers in 2007 and this year Legambiente awarded us the recognition of cheese of the year thanks to the implementation of the Life Ttgg project”.

For the first time, the Protection Consortium has drafted and brought its sustainability report to approval. “We wanted it because, in our opinion, to improve it is necessary to measure what the supply chain does every day from this point of view – explained Zaghini – and according to the indications of the seventeen sustainable development objectives reaffirmed by the UN in the 2030 Agenda. communicate this commitment with the right language”. For environmental sustainability, the priorities are the impact of the business activity on the territory, the management of the waste produced and the diffusion of the culture of cheese in the world. For the social one, adequate company policies will promote the well-being of employees and the healthiness of workplaces, well beyond the regulatory obligations. For sustainable governance and economic performance, the focus is on innovation, on adequate strategies for the purchase and transformation of raw materials to protect consumers, on practices for the protection and promotion of product quality in compliance with the standards and on promoting production plans aimed at sustainability.

On these fronts, the Protection Consortium has added new tools to those that have been tested for years. For the environment, the application in companies of the control system developed with the Life Ttgg project is proceeding and the entire supply chain applies the Made in Green and Responsible Breeding procedures, choices that have earned the Consortium international WIPO recognition. On sustainability alongside the Grana Padano Nutritional Education program and the growth of supervisory services, in 2022 the Grana Padano Ets Foundation was joined, the operational arm for all the numerous and demanding social-welfare activities. Sustainable governance instead in 2022 remunerated with approximately 89 percent of the value produced by consortium members and consumers and 80 percent remained in the Dop production area. "We are only at the beginning, but drafting this first edition of the Sustainability Report and its preparation has helped us to better understand where and how to improve in the structuring of data collection and in the choice of initiatives to undertake - commented the president of the Consortium -. There is still a lot to do, but if you want to reach a goal, two things are important: to start and march in the right direction”.

In 2022, 65.30 of the production of 5,212,103 wheels was concentrated in cooperation, therefore compared to 34.70 of the dairy industry. At the provincial level, Mantua is confirmed on the podium with 1,555,193 wheels produced in 28 dairies, Brescia with 1,187,393 wheels in 29 dairies and Cremona with 915,275 wheels in 9 dairies. Followed by Piacenza with 592,325 wheels in 20 dairies, the whole of Veneto with 566,182 wheels - including those processed with Veneto milk outside the 25 dairies in the region -, Trento with 134,948 wheels in 18 dairies, Bergamo with 112,043 in 3 dairies, Lodi with 93,310 in 4 dairies, Cuneo with 40,712 wheels in 3 dairies and Pavia with 14,362 in 2 dairies.

Exports rose by 6.19% to 2,363,706 wheels, with a total of 1,960,523 wheels marketed in Europe, and today account for 47% of the total branded wheels. Germany is confirmed as the leading market, with 585,339 wheels and a new growth of 1.33%, ahead of France with 279,250 wheels and an increase of 11.44%. At 205,010 forms we find together the Benelux countries – Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – with +9.29%. Followed by the United States with 174,886 forms and +2.98%, Switzerland with 138,524 and +2.14%, Spain with 134,693 and +8.47%, the United Kingdom with 134,122 forms and a comforting +6.54% after the impact Brexit complex. The Top Ten is closed by Austria with 78,707 and +3.66%, Canada with 71,767 wheels and the best performance among the leading export countries of 12.98%, ahead of Sweden with 62,159 wheels and +2.03 .