Asiago DOP looks to an increasingly natural and healthy future

The closure of the 2019 budget with a total production of 1,559,039 shapes, stocks to a minimum, the increase in consumption in Italy growing by 1.6% in volume and 4.9% in value and a new production specification in the name of naturalness, sustainability and animal welfare for 2020 : these are the main data presented during the Assembly of members of the Asiago Cheese Protection Consortium held last 9 July by videoconference.

In 2019 the Asiago Cheese Protection Consortium celebrated its 40 years of activity with the increase in consumption in Italy, in contrast with the drop in national sales of semi-hard cheeses both in volume (-4.6%) and in value (- 3.5%). The positive result rewards the enhancement plan of Asiago DOP production and its distinctive qualities. These elements are today the starting point of the new production disciplinary that arises from a firm choice of the whole company structure to follow the path of a decisive innovation and enhancement of the link between the product and the territory with modifications that find perfect correspondence with the needs. market and new consumer sensitivities. Following a virtuous path that will range from the choice not to use exogenous raw materials such as cotton in the feeding of cattle, to the elimination of the use of lysozyme, the new production specification will be increasingly closer to the issues of respect for natural cycles and link with the origins . Confirming the path taken, the members unanimously voted on the choice to adhere to the voluntary evaluation on animal welfare CReNBA (National Reference Center for Animal Welfare), a further step towards an ever greater attention to respect and protection of animals.

During the meeting, the activity of the Protection Consortium abroad was also illustrated. USA, Switzerland and France are today the three countries with the greatest spread of Asiago DOP. Of particular importance, among the promotional activities, in the past year, the results achieved also thanks to the three-year European project "Uncommon Flavors of Europe" and the entry into force of the Europe agreements. Asiago PDO has registered, only in the USA and Canada, an overall increase of 16.8% in volume compared to 2018. At the same time, the Consortium continued its active protection and international promotion action with results that, in Mexico, they led to an increase in product diffusion of 300% by volume and 352% by value. Instead, the two three-year EU-funded product promotion plans presented in 2019 called "Asia Enjoy European Quality Food in Japan, China, South Korea and Vietnam and" European Lifestyle: Taste Wonderfood in Italy, are only postponed to 2021. Germany, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, with a total value of 8.4 million euros.

“In these difficult months we have all rediscovered the meaning and value of cohesion - says Fiorenzo Rigoni, President of the Asiago Cheese Protection Consortium. - Together we reacted with determination and a sense of responsibility to face a great challenge that changed our way of living, thinking and consuming. The members of the Protection Consortium have chosen to be interpreters of change by following a path in which tradition and innovation find perfect synthesis in a unique product, capable of preserving the great historicity of this Italian and European heritage cheese and, at the same time, of offering new solutions for using and enhancing its undeniable qualities ".