Heatwaves threaten Italy's cheese vaults and ripple through farms, vineyards and olive groves

Credito Emiliano’s vault in the hills of Emilia-Romagna holds more than 500,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, serving as collateral for loans to local dairies since 1953. A subsidiary ages the cheese in two warehouses, and blockchain now lets farmers pledge wheels while they remain on the farm, doubling the bank’s lending power. This year’s extreme heat drove daily energy use up about 30 %, prompting costly upgrades to cooling systems and renewable power.

The heat also reduced cows’ milk production by up to 10 %, raising costs for farmers. Parallel climate stress is evident in Italy’s vineyards, with the Franciacorta harvest starting earliest on record and Sicilian picking extending over a hundred days, while olive-oil output in Puglia and Calabria fell well below the historic average. Labor economist R. Jisung Park says such upstream temperature shocks generate hidden downstream economic damage, a pattern now visible across cheese, wine and olive sectors.