Parmigiano Reggiano at 3.2 billion euro, USA first export market

Record sales for Parmigiano Reggiano: in 2024, the PDO collected 3.2 billion euros, 4.9% more than the previous year. The results are positive for both volume sales (+9.2%) and exports (+13.7%). The figures were presented on Thursday 17 April during the consortium's annual meeting at Palazzo Giureconsulti in Milan.

Italy accounted for 51.3% of PDO sales, 5.2% more than in 2023. But the real driving force behind Parmigiano was the foreign market, with the export quota now worth almost half (48.7%) of sales. Unlike the Grana Padano, for which Germany is by far the most important market, in the case of the Reggiana PDO, the United States is the leading export market, with 16,286 tons of cheese sold. It is followed in second place by France, with 14,779 tons, and in third place by Germany with 10,319 tons.

"It is clear that in this scenario the USA, our first foreign market, plays a fundamental role," said the president of the consortium, Nicola Bertinelli. Who, however, continues to remain optimistic: 'The increase in duties on Parmigiano Reggiano is news that certainly did not cheer us up, but ours is a premium product and an increase in price does not automatically lead to a reduction in consumption. We will work to try through negotiations to make them understand why it makes no sense to apply duties to a product like ours that is not in real competition with American Parmesans. We need to discuss with the US that there is no advantage in engaging in a trade war, either on one side or the other. And this dialogue should not be conducted bilaterally by individual countries, but by the European Union.

The stars and stripes is not, however, the only foreign market in growth for the 291 dairies of the consortium: France, for example, increased its purchases by 9.1% in 2024, Germany by 13.3%, the United Kingdom by 17.8% and Canada, although now worth just over 3,500 tonnes, increased its sales by 24.5%.

In contrast to an increasing turnover, the production of Parmigiano remained more or less stable at 4.079 million wheels. The leading production province remains Parma (1.36 million wheels), followed by Reggio Emilia with 1.21 million. Third is Modena with 877 thousand and fourth Mantua - the only Lombardy province in the consortium - with 507 thousand.