This summer's heatwaves in northern Italy have reached an unlikely balance sheet: the warehouses where regional lenders store ageing cheese as security for the money they advance to dairy farmers. The vaults of Credito Emiliano, known as Credem, hold more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, worth well over €300 million, in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena.
Credem has accepted young, unmatured wheels as collateral since 1953. Its subsidiary, Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate, matures the cheese in climate-controlled facilities. Producers receive 60% to 80% of a wheel's value upfront because Parmigiano must age at least 12 months, often 24 or 36, tying up cash that small dairies cannot spare.
Blockchain technology has recently allowed farmers to pledge wheels while the cheese remains in their own facilities, doubling the bank's lending capacity. But keeping that inventory at the right temperature has become markedly riskier.
Heat drives up costs and cuts milk supply
Daily power consumption at the vaults climbed roughly 30% at the peak of this year's heat, forcing the bank to upgrade cooling systems and boilers, add insulation, and expand renewable power generation. With wheels sometimes maturing for three years, every hot summer compounds the cost long before the cheese can be sold. The summer of 2026 is tracking to be one of the hottest in Italy's recorded history.
The strain begins in the barn. Once temperatures top 40°C, cows lie down more and eat less, cutting milk yields by as much as 10%. "Extreme heat impacts milk's quality and quantity," said Nicola Bertinelli, president of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium. The rules leave little room for manoeuvre: the cheese may only be made in five provinces from cows fed on grass and hay grown there, so a dry season hits both the feed and the herd.
The stakes are large. Italy turned out 4.19 million wheels in 2025, representing a consumer turnover of around €4 billion, according to the consortium. Economists say heat usually shows up this way—indirectly and with a lag. R. Jisung Park, a labour economist at the Wharton School, said heat upstream produces "measurable downstream firm valuation impacts," the pattern visible when a hot spell in a cowshed becomes a cost problem for a bank months later.
A European Central Bank working paper published in March found that the growth hit from extreme heat is smaller in Italy and Spain than in Germany, as southern economies are better adapted. But a modest headline figure can conceal sharp losses down the chain. The broader heatwave straining Europe's rivers and energy is already affecting other sectors, and the cheese banks are a stark example of how climate stress can ripple through a regional economy.
For now, Credem is adapting, investing in more efficient cooling and renewable energy. But the long-term outlook is uncertain. As summers get hotter, the cost of safeguarding Italy's most famous cheese—and the loans it backs—will only rise. The situation also highlights a deeper tension between tradition and climate resilience, one that Italy and Spain have clashed over in other policy areas. For the dairy farmers of Emilia-Romagna, the challenge is immediate: keep the cows cool, the feed growing, and the cheese ageing, all while the thermometer keeps climbing.
