Excellence and Tradition
ITALIAN PRODUCTS, CERTIFIED QUALITY
The consortium's mission is to bring to millions of tables an Italian product of exceptional quality, guaranteed by a controlled and certified production chain and produced using the most advanced technologies but always with respect for tradition.
SOLIDARITY AND COOPERATION
Our objectives are based on unshakable values: solidarity and cooperation, which have induced us to come together and led us, one day at a time, on a path to continuous growth.
OUR MEMBERS
The consortium brings together 40 cheesemakers with some 800 farmers who produce, supply and market their products. As a second-level cooperative (meaning that our members are themselves cooperatives), we have direct control of the entire production chain and use local raw materials that are 100% Italian.
HISTORY
THE FOUNDING
Consorzio Virgilio was founded more than a hundred years ago, when the local dairies decided to join forces and produce excellence. We were called The Dairy. A name that's dear to us even today, and which sums up the secret of our production. Because it all begins with the ingredients, which are rigorously controlled and selected to make the best products. The skimmed cream from our cheese production is the ingredient that forms the basis of our quality; it is rapidly analysed and processed at our factory, becoming VIRGILIO butter, cream, béchamel and mascarpone.
OUR ASSET
Such an abundant land needs to be nourished and safeguarded in order to make the most of its natural and cultural resources. This abundance is the source of our work, in a story whose roots are constantly renewed and go deep into our land, beginning in the 60s as Consorzio Latterie Sociali Mantovane with the gathering of 27 cheesemakers from the Mantua area.
It was a momentous step in this agricultural region, and Mantua began to see the proliferation of social cheesemakers, cooperatives of farmers and small companies that collected and processed the milk.
TODAY
Adherence to the guidelines and a controlled production chain make Consorzio Virgilio a landmark in the cheesemaking sector in north-eastern Italy; today we have some 40 associated members and more that 1000 farmers supplying milk.
The entire production chain, from farm to table, is meticulously supervised and certified by our partner companies. This allows us to guarantee the reliability of our brand, the irreproachable quality of our products and the safety of consumers, beginning with the scrupulous selection of the more than 1500 producers who supply excellent Italian milk from the DOP area.
It is the responsibility of our members to certify the provenance, quality and freshness of the raw material that lies at the base of all our products, and to ensure that every stage of the process adheres to the high standards of hygiene and health required by European law.
TIES WITH THE LAND
The roots of Consorzio Virgilio lie deep in the province of Mantua, a land that has always been key to the production of the world's most famous hard cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano; similar in shape and maturation, but equally unmistakable in terms of flavour and provenance of the milk that makes them unique.
A UNIQUE LAND
Virgilio is the only consortium in Italy that brings together suppliers of both Grana Padano DOP and Parmigiano Reggiano DOP, thanks to the existence of two production areas protected by guidelines that give rise to the Protected Denomination of Origin status, to the right and left of the river Po.
