In southern Italy, truckers protest. And Italy’s famous buffalo mozzarella cheese stops selling.
This mozzarella is softer, creamier, and richer than cow’s milk mozzarella. Cheesemakers use milk from the Italian Mediterranean buffalo, a type of water buffalo.
What do truck drivers have to do with cheese? They deliver milk to dairies near Naples. When they don’t deliver, cheesemakers can’t make cheese. The cheese that does get made also can’t reach customers without truckers.
The truckers have been on strike for a week. Why? Diesel fuel has grown very expensive because of the war in Iran. Drivers say they can’t make enough money because they must spend so much on fuel. They want the Italian government to help bring prices down.
In just one day of the strike, cheesemakers lost an estimated three million euros. (That’s over 3.3 million U.S. dollars.)
The strike means that truck aren’t carrying other goods to supermarkets either. Many stores have bare shelves. Gas pumps are empty in much of southern Italy.
On Thursday, the government tried to make the truckers happy by giving them a tax break. (A tax break lowers the amount of money people pay in taxes.) Will that be enough to end the protest? It’s too early to say.
For now, cheese feels the squeeze. The water buffalo must be milked—trucks or no trucks. Italian rules require that their milk be turned into mozzarella within 60 hours.
Pier Maria Saccani runs a group that protects the unique mozzarella. He says about one million liters of Wednesday’s buffalo milk couldn’t be turned into cheese. That’s more than 26,400 gallons.
Farmers rely on dairy trucks to collect milk. They don’t have space to store much extra.
“So this blockade has obviously caused panic among farmers, who say, ‘Where are we going to put it?’” Mr. Saccani adds.
What can farmers do with all the extra milk? Some started feeding a portion to their animals. That helps the situation a little. The fuel problem also makes animal feed more expensive.
Pray for the many people affected by the war in Iran—soldiers, civilians, farmers, cheesemakers, and truckers.
Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. — 2 Thessalonians 3:16
