Where Parmigiano Is Born Every Day: Latteria Sociale Gonfo
On the banks of the River Po, where the morning fog mingles with the steam of freshly drawn milk, begins a story steeped in tradition and territory — that of Latteria Sociale Gonfo, a symbol of Mantua’s dairy heritage and its enduring passion for Parmigiano Reggiano.
Latteria Sociale Gonfo traces its roots back to the 1920s, when a group of farmers from the lower Mantuan plain decided to join forces to give greater value to the milk from their herds.
By the Po, in Motteggiana (MN), they built a small octagonal dairy that could hold just one or two vats: every day, members would bring buckets of milk and bundles of wood, fueling a production that was shared, genuine, and rooted in community.
With time — and the arrival of Italy’s economic boom in the 1960s — Latteria Gonfo evolved into a social cooperative.
The farmers, united by the same values, became the owners of their dairy. Production grew to over 200,000 quintals of milk per year, marking the beginning of a steady and remarkable expansion.
Today
Today, Gonfo processes around 280,000 quintals of milk annually, crafting about 150 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano each day.
Its 54,000 wheels rest in silence inside the aging warehouses, where time and the skill of the cheesemakers transform them into a cheese that preserves the authentic flavor of tradition.
Since 2005, Latteria Sociale Gonfo has been part of the Gourm.it consortium, bringing its Parmigiano Reggiano from the banks of the Po to tables around the world — from France to Japan, from the United States to the Netherlands.
A century of history, made of milk, hands, and passion, continues to tell the story of Mantua’s land through every single wheel of cheese.
