The Latteria Sociale Gonfo was founded in the 1920s as a dairy consortium.
Imagine a small octagonal structure, capable of containing a maximum of one or two cauldrons, surrounded by greenery on the banks of the Po in Mantua. Every day, farmers from the surrounding area would bring here the milk produced by their cows and some wooden bundles: they would then deliver both the raw material and the fuel to produce Parmigiano Reggiano. There were those who owned a cart and those who carried the buckets by hand.
Time went by, we are now in the sixties: the economic boom allowed for an increase in the capacity of the cheese factory, which modernised its structures and became a cooperative, owned directly by the farmers who brought their milk here every day; production grew to 30,000 quintals a year.
Time has passed and technology has evolved to improve production tools, but the cheesemaker's work has not changed: the ingredients are the same, the gestures and challenges of making Parmigiano Reggiano are every day the same. But the volumes have changed: today the Gonfo Social Dairy processes 280,000 quintals of milk per year. Its giant farmhouses contain a small treasure: 54 thousand wheels, resting, maturing and waiting to reach the tables of consumers all over the world.
It is not only the production structure of the dairy that has grown, but also the entire supply chain behind it: there are now 23 member farms that supply milk for processing. Thanks to the high technological and genetic skills of the new generations of farmers, the cows (mainly Friesian) are able to increase the quantity and quality of the milk produced every year. These animals, thanks to new knowledge about the benefits of animal welfare, grow and live in enclosures designed for their comfort, and in accordance with Parmigiano Reggiano regulations are fed with fodder grown within the farm's boundaries.
Arriving now from the Po embankment, the Latteria Sociale Gonfo looks like an imposing structure immersed in the green of the floodplain. Since 2005 the dairy has been a member of Gourm.it, and thanks to the Consortium it is now available on tables all over the world, from France to Holland, from the United States to Japan.
