Seventy years and keep looking to the future. It is the recipe of life of the Consorzio Tutela Grana Padano, born on 18 June 1954 with the drafting of the Statute stipulated and deposited in Lodi, where according to historical texts the renowned "grana lodesano" was producedproduced with fresh milk decreed according to the recipe created around 1135 by the Benedictine monks of Chiaravalle.

Federlatte -the Federation of Cooperative Dairies- and Assolatte, the Association of Dairy Industries, created the consortium to bring together all producers, seasoners and traders of PDO cheese that today is the most consumed in the world, with 5,456,500 shapes produced last year and an export of 2,481,891 shapes (+ 6.55% vs 2022), equal to 48.2% of the branded production.

"The motivation for that choice -explains a note from the consortium- is the passion for the territory, the desire to safeguard the experience and expertise handed down from generations and the ambition to enhance a chain based on knowledge and know-how, unique and unrepeatable".

"The Consortium was born to preserve a heritage that is also cultural -said its president Renato Zaghini- Today it is also a place of promotion of productive sustainability and a garrison to protect the quality of life, the environment, the right of all to be guaranteed more and more and better on the food they choose. Therefore, the 70th birthday is a step forward and first of many others, not only therefore a goal".

"We are the Italian emotion in the world, as the export data tells us, and we want to continue to be so for the responsibility that the achieved results require us -adds the General Manager, Stefano Berni-. We are sponsors of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026, an honor that calls us to welcome athletes and the public, but to reach them today with a message of joy, loyalty and pride. To date, the continuation of the activities and purposes of the Consortium are sanctioned, by decree of the ministry of Agriculture, food and forestry and food Sovereignty, until 31 December 2054. But as the Grana Padano PDO comes from far away, from the monks of Chiaravalle to whom we are very attached, its Consortium of Protection will be able to continue for a long time towards the future".

In 1996 the Grana Padano obtained the recognition of the Protected Designation of Origin by the European Union and therefore the tasks of the Protection Consortium have changed. The agency produces marks, trademarks or patents, carries out promotional and advertising activities and researches, technical and market, to encourage the progress of methods and means of production and marketing of Grana Padano and also in court exercises actions, to defend the name, the distinctive signs and the consortia rights in general and to prevent or repress defaults and/or acts of the Consortia and/or third parties detrimental to the interests of the Consortium and/or the Consortia.

The Consortium includes 127 producers with 137 dairy producers and 148 seasoners. In addition, 200 holdings are authorised to pack Grana Padano in portions and grate, while 19 are authorised to use PDO in compound, processed and processed products (CET). The entire production chain of the most consumed protected designation of origin product in the world involves 50 thousand people and in 2023 worked about 2,858,093,638 tons of milk milked in 3,835 stalls. 

In the period January-May 2024 2,659,774 shapes were already produced (+3.11% compared to the same period of 2023). 

The Consortium is based in San Martino della Battaglia, in the territory of Desenzano del Garda, in the province of Brescia; it is therefore located in the heart of the production area of Grana Padano, which extends along the entire Po Valley and includes 34 provinces from Piedmont to Veneto, from the province of Trento to that of Piacenza; the actual production is now concentrated in 13 provinces.