Since 1953, an Italian bank has accepted wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano as collateral for loans — but the heatwave sweeping across the region is causing the bank to second-guess its decision.
About $350 million in cheese is sitting in two warehouses operated by Credito Emiliano, where a European heatwave is quickly threatening profitability.
“This is the Fort Knox of Cheese. Instead of gold bars, you have gold wheels. Every wheel is 700 euros,” a spokesperson for the bank told CBS News. “Outside the temperature is very high and so we need a lot of energy to maintain humidity and temperature for the cheese.”
The bank has had to improve cooling systems and boilers, upgrade building insulation, and increase renewable energy production in order to keep the cheese stored at proper temperatures.
“If extreme events become longer-lasting and more intense, they will certainly have an impact on both the quantity and quality of milk, but above all they will lead to higher costs,” added Paolo Ganzerli, the international sales director at food group GranTerre.
As a whole, the Parmigiano Reggiano industry generates $5.15 billion in revenue a year, with exports of the cheese in 2025 accounting for more than 50% of Parmigiano Reggiano’s global sales. But rising temperatures don’t just affect the bank’s profitability margin as energy costs take a large share of operating costs. They also impact the amount of cheese available in the first place.
High temperatures cause cows to spend more time lying down — and therefore eating less — causing them to produce 10% less milk, which is one of Parmigiano’s key ingredients alongside salt and rennet. “The cow has less milk, and the quality of the wheel cheese [is] different. So it’s an important question for farmers, the producers, and also us to maintain an excellent level of conservation of cheese,” explained a spokesperson for the bank.
Italy is one of the European countries to reverse course on its closure of coal-fired power plants amid rising energy costs. Former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni pledged coal-fired plants would be permanently closed by 2025 as the country shifted to renewable energy sources.
The permanent closure has since been shifted to 2038, giving Italy more time to secure alternative energy sources before taking coal-fired plants offline — a reversal that reflects a broader debate over whether Europe’s transition to renewable energy has moved faster than its energy infrastructure can accommodate.
Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, has argued that the continent moved too quickly. “In Europe there has been a very fast rush to the energy transition. I would argue too fast,” said Mike Sommers.
Not everyone in Europe agrees. European Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera argued that accelerating the transition to clean energy, rather than slowing it down, is the answer to Europe’s energy challenges. “The real risk is not moving too fast on clean energy, but too slowly,” Ribera said earlier this year.
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