The ancient art stopped dead in its tracks. The heart of the agro-pastoral history of the Island, the most authentic and identifying one, in the silence of the Palaces of Rome, marks an unprecedented setback. For two months the wise mastery of the shepherds of Barbagia had to give up. The production of the most prized of their cheeses, Fiore Sardo, is blocked. The brand to be affixed to the most Sardinian of the PDOs, Protected Designation of Origin, an essential and mandatory condition for producing the famous pecorino, was in fact denied to the only and historic producers located in the heart of Sardinia.
Low blow
A very hard blow for an economy that has always made its identity and dairy tradition its greatest strength. Yet, without anyone having attempted to avoid this disaster, the Ministry of Agriculture, to date, has not yet given any sign of even the slightest response to the dozens of producers forced to stop the production of the Fiore Sardo. Everything is linked to the ministerial decision to revoke the authorization to supply the "casein labels" from the Protection Consortium, with the cessation of sale of the marking tools. A measure about which there is no official news, but whose very serious consequences on productions are dramatically recorded.
Productive hole
A stop that is taking place in the most fruitful period of milk processing, with a production "hole" that will have unprecedented repercussions on the Sardinian dairy market and beyond. The paradox of this story is that the Sardinian shepherds, those who have always carried on this tradition, in full compliance with the regulations, are doubly victims of this story. Two eloquent facts about this story: in 2016 the "snatch raid" of the Protection Consortium by dairy industrialists and then the scandal of the altered production of the "Fiore Sardo" by numerous industrial activities, with the use of "thermalized" milk rather than "raw", as strictly required by the regulations for the processing of the ancient cheese.
The Fiore coup
Two directly connected steps: on the one hand, following those altered productions, the industrialists have effectively "excluded" the historical soul of the Fiore Sardo from the Protection Consortium, and on the other they have seriously affected the most authentic activity, the one that involved the production of Fiore Sardo directly in the sheepfolds, in compliance with the timing imposed by the regulations which imposed processing times for raw milk that were not compatible with the transfer of the "white gold" to industrial dairies.
