Industry
Italy needs Indian farmers
Indian farmers produce world’s best cheese
Pizza langar/ kitchen outraged people on the internet. They wondered how could poor farmers eat pizza with cheese toppings. Without Indian farmers Italians would not produce world’s best cheese.
Comedian Gurpreet Ghuggi commented that Indian farmers deserve to eat pizza as they produce wheat and cheese. Indian farmers are also keeping Italy’s traditional cheese industry alive. Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano are amongst the world’s most famous cheese. Most of the workers producing them are Sikh farmersfrom India. They work as bergamini, which means dairy worker.
“It (cheese making) was a profession that was traditional and typical of Northern Italy. But with the workforce dwindling, it was fortunate that Indians came to fill the labour gap and save the cheese-making economy,” says Mayor Dalido Maligo of Pessina Cremonese, a municipality in the province of Cremona in Lombardy. Cremona has a dense Indian population — Indians of Punjabi origin constitute the single largest immigrant group, and make up about 20 percent of the total immigrant population.
Indian cheese market is worth INR 2000cr. It is growing at an annual rate of 12%. Amul tabled its cheese manufacturing capacity, yet it increased its market share. Indie businesses such as Flanders Dairy are the role models.
Watch: Documentary on Sardars of Cheese Link
