With an article dated January 13, He Post cast a dark shadow over the dairy market: “In Italy there is too much milk. For months we have been milking more than we need, so much so that several farmers are forced to throw it away”.
The situation depicted by the article seems to be rather alarming, but the investigation focuses exclusively on the market of large agricultural companiesalmost always located in lowland areas, and with standardized agreements with the large companies in the dairy sector. As an emblematic case, in fact, He Post brought the case of a Pavia farm with 340 dairy cows. This leaves out small businesses, which often constitute the standard business form in Alpine areas.
So we asked ourselves: Will this crisis in the sector also involve these realities? And if so, how?
We are talking about small farms, under 50 animals, be they goats, cows or sheep. This is the case ofBurki agri-company, a family business from the Upper Anzasca Valley, wedged on the Piedmont border with Switzerland, on the slopes of Monte Rosa.
The company owns everything about twenty cattle, generally a dozen adult lactating animals per year. This is a situation that ultimately reflects many mountain activities, especially in the Piedmont, Lombardy, South Tyrolean and Friulian Alpine areas, while differing from some companies in Trentino or Veneto.
Precisely because of its emblematic potential, as well as the awareness of the owner Cristina Rainelli, we thought it could be a representative case of the general situation. Cristina, in fact, in addition to managing the company together with her husband and sister-in-law, is also president of the Association of Farm Cheesemakers and Cheesemakerswhich has around 90 members throughout Italy, active in small production companies in the dairy sector.
The Alpe Burki agri-company
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Unlike many large agricultural companies, which are generally hyper-specialised, Alpe Burki’s strength lies precisely in the diversification of its offer and its adaptability to market needs. Rainelli’s it is not only a farm but also an agritourism: hospitality and breeding are thus the extremes of a complementary and self-sustaining offer.
“We are very fortunate to have a related business, which is that of the agritourism in the locality of Macugnaga and draws mainly from tourism in Lombardy, Milan and Varese. Consequently, our catchment area and product purchase area is associated with the tourist food and wine experience of Monte Rosa and Macugnaga it allows us not to perceive situations of decline so stronglyin the sense that obviously we have summer, which is a time of great appeal for urban populations who move to the mountains, and winter, being a ski resort and having a farm located on the ski slopes, becomes a great fortune”.
For these reasons, the cheesemaker explains, this situation of milk surplus is not perceived up here. In times like this, on the contrary, they often risk having the opposite problem. “After Christmas, we find ourselves in situations where we have a shortage of agricultural productwhich coincides with the dry period of the cows in view of spring calving. This is a moment of shortage, in which we will need a little more and let’s play a little with the availability we have. In fact, in my company, we also buy milk from others, precisely to compensate for this lack of raw material.”
In short, it can be said that Alpe Burki experiences an almost reversed situation compared to large specialized companies, and one wonders if this could be a common reason for redemption for small businesses. Definitely, it’s a great case study.
It must also be said, however, that the basin of Milan and the Milanese hinterland, which travels for tourism, has an important purchasing capacity. “There are colleagues from central Italy – recalls Cristina as president of the Association – who sell their sheep’s cheeses at prices that do not at all justify the work, effort and productivity of the animal. A sheep or a goat produces much less milk than a cow, and therefore I would expect that the same kilo of cheese certainly costs more. However, this is not the case.”
I soci
The management of the company is in the hands of three partners: Cristina Rainelli, her husband and sister-in-laweach bringing completely different skills.
“My husband and my sister-in-law are the historical heirs of the company. I come from the same valley, about fifteen kilometers away, but I am the external purchase, the outsider”.
“I am molecular biologist. Before, I worked at San Raffaele in Milanand then I devoted myself to agriculture, changing the cards of my life a little, moving the laboratory to a dairy. First I taught and then later I took over this dairy business, turning it into a very dynamic situation, because I really like experimenting, doing and working”.
Her husband Alessio is a mechanical expert and graduate in sociology. He is responsible for all the mechanical parts of repairing machines and tools, as well as the manual ability in carrying out various tasks, from the stable on the farm to the kitchen on the farm.
The sister-in-law, then, has other skills: graduated from the Iulm University of Milan, she mainly deals with public relations and marketing. “He previously worked in a digital marketing company and consequently has all those tasks ranging from administration, to sales, to everything related to management, applications for tenders, e-commerce management, etc.”.
Having many diversified skills, which in times of difficulty, means having many resources available to react; but also many contacts, perhaps due to old study or work situations. This allows us to articulate the offer more or look for different solutions depending on the problem that arises.
The production
“In a small company like ours – explains Cristina returning to the starting point -, not having a specific link with a PDO or a production contract, if a product doesn’t work at the moment, I can move production. Obviously I’m not saying that someone who makes alpine cheese then starts making mozzarella; however it can certainly offer a wide range of solutions on the table. If a company is very large and has fixed all its production on a certain type of product, however, it is difficult for it to change suddenly.”
With the different skills that the three partners of the company bring, a lot of attention is paid to the interests of consumers at Alpe Burki. “If demand runs out on one side and grows on another, I try to understand the solutions that may be the most appropriate to meet the needs of my market“. Compared to large companies, often also exposed to international competition and the fluctuations of the global market, the dynamics affecting Alpe Burki take place on a much smaller and more easily understandable scale.
Similar cases, in which the production is redirected to follow the interests of its audiencethe cheesemaker explains to us, happen continuously.
“We introduced the use of vegetable coagulant years ago because I had customers who didn’t buy the cheese because of the animal rennetso I started introducing a coagulant extracted from thistle and from there I created a product that is now sold”.
“Then there was the issue of lactose, many customers have this need to want to eat cheese anyway, but have problems with the lactose. We have done several tests with different bacterial cultures within our production. Whether they are exogenous or endogenous does not matter, but acidification leads to the metabolization of lactose by bacteria. Thus the lactose is transformed into lactic acid and consequently eliminated, so the products become naturally lactose-free.”
Perhaps the most complex part of these operations is communicating to the customer the research behind a product. “There are many tests before, which must be explained, told. The fact of having direct interaction with the customer offers us (and I generally say this to all those who have a business selling their products directly) the advantage of being able to entice the customer and help him understand certain facets. Affiliating a consumer with their needs to us means ensuring that the market continues to exist.”
This, according to Cristina Rainelli, is another great advantage of the mountain reality, which is inextricably linked to the tourist dimension. “It happens that customers from the mountain pasture, who perhaps met you in the summer, then want to have some of your products again in the winter. E-commerce allows us to maintain a relationship with them, although I must say that most people tell us that they prefer to come here in person to buy them.”
Association of Cheesemakers and Cheesemakers
As we said, Cristina Rainelli, as well as an entrepreneur, is also president of the Association of “Caesemakers and Farm Cheesemakers”. The association was born in Piedmont in 2002 and has a series of representative people within the Piedmontese territory, which is why many members belong to realities in the north-west. This does not take anything away from the widespread nature of the project: “we have members ranging from the extreme north of Trentino to the province of Ragusa”.
Cristina is in constant contact with all these activities, and states that she has not perceived any difficulties of this kind. “I would say that all small businesses have other kinds of difficulties at the moment: the bureaucratic burdens, the raw milk issue, the marketing. I would say that the problems are linked, more than to market fluctuations, to the management and corporate apparatus and to the generational question of generational change“.
In the eyes of the entrepreneur, the dynamics that move within small farms are completely different compared to the world of large production companies. The next few years will then be crucial in finding solutions for a different or new approach to work; the central point will be the preparation and multidisciplinarity of the new cheesemakers.
“The essence is that today you have to bring together many skills, even within microscopic companies: this is the key issue. You can no longer say you are a breeder because you don’t want to study, this is no longer sustainable. A business, regardless of whether it is agricultural, is a business. Therefore each skill, of whatever kind, will give you a series of additional possibilities to interact with the rest of the world, whatever your market and your customers”.
