Pecorino Romano PDO, record price: what’s happening

The price of the Pecorino Romano DOPfamous Italian cheese produced at 95% in Sardinia (with the addition of a few companies in Tuscany And Lazio), has flown to the stars.

How much is Pecorino Romano PDO worth today?

The price of Pecorino Romano PDO, among the best-selling in the United States of America (it is the main export market, with a share of 52% of that destined abroad), has flown to over 13 euros per kilogram. The price began to rise in November 2020, but already in December 2021 it had reached the record price of 9.38 euros per kilo, which had not been seen since 2015. From April 2022 there was then a exponential growth, reaching 11 euros per kilo and then peaks between 12.80 and 13.50 euros per kilogram, thus beating all records.

The point of the Consortium for the Protection of Pecorino Romano Dop

Gianni Maoddipresident of the Consortium for the Protection of Pecorino Romano Dop, explained to “Ansa ‘that these prices never reached before are essentially due to” a combined with several factors“, Including” limited production (-3.1% on the previous year / Clal data – over 1.6 million liters of milk less destined for February production / Ismea data, ed) improved quality, promotional actions and a custom, born in the period of the pandemic, for the use of the product in some traditional dishes such as carbonara or cacio e pepe “.

Gianni Maoddi himself added: “Today the euro-dollar exchange allows the US consumer to feel less price increases. If the level of consumption remains at this level, 2022 production will not be enough to reach May 2023 when the cheese that will start to be produced from October will be marketed and we could also see a stock outage “.

The president of the Consortium for the Protection of Pecorino Romano PDO also explained that “the value of the final price of the cheese is high, the moment is favorable, but all production costs, from breeding to processing, are increasing and this worries us for the future”. In particular, there is an increase in packaging costs, for fertilizers and energy, but also the lack of labor in the countryside where the shepherds who deliver the sheep’s milk work, which this year is paid with balances between 1, 30 euros per liter and peaks of 1.45 euros per liter. Furthermore, in August, Gianni Maoddi had raised the alarm on the depopulation of fields.

The characteristics of Pecorino Romano Dop

As stated on the Consortium website, Pecorino Romano Dop is a hard cheesecooked, which is produced with fresh whole sheep’s milk, coming exclusively from farms in the production area, possibly inoculated with natural cultures of native lactic ferments of the production area and coagulated with lamb rennet in paste coming only from farmed animals in the same production area.

His crust is subtlefrom light ivory or natural straw color, sometimes covered with special neutral or black food protectors. The paste is compact or slightly open. The color It can change from white to more or less intense straw yellowin relation to the technical conditions of production.

The taste of Pecorino Romano Dop is aromatic, slightly spicy and savory in table cheese e intense spicy in grated cheese.

The forms of this cheese are cylindrical with flat sides, with a height of the side between 25 and 40 centimeters and the diameter of the plate between 25 and 35 centimeters. The weight of the forms can vary between 20 and 35 kilograms.

Pecorino Romano can be placed on the market with a minimum maturation of 5 months as a table cheese and 8 months as regards the grating type.