Earthquake-stricken parmesan on sale in Bologna

The Bologna branch of the farming association Coldiretti has organised the sale of "earthquake-stricken" Parmigiano Reggiano in Bologna tomorrow. The cheese is already seasoned and has been checked by monitoring groups, and will be sold in chunks of 1 kilo apiece at a market price fixed by the producing factory, "in order to avoid distortion and speculation". The scheme, which has been introduced to support the areas hit by the quake, will begin at 15:00 at the Amica country market. Coldiretti points out that the quake hit DOP (protected designation of origin) Parmigiano Reggiano very hard, ruining over 600,000 40 kilogram wheels of the cheese after the collapse of the "scalere", the large shelves used to season the cheese. Damage to Parmigiano Reggiano alone reached 150 million euros. Meanwhile, solidarity schemes are continuing on the Internet. In 4 days, Coldiretti's has received 17,000 email requests from people wanting to buy cheese affected by the earthquake. (ANSAmed).