Parmigiano is worth gold — the great aged cheese of the Parma and Reggio Emilia area is treated as a form of wealth, not mere food. Banks in the region have long accepted wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano as collateral for loans, making the proverb literally true.
Parmigiano-Reggiano has been produced in the area around Parma and Reggio Emilia since at least the twelfth century, when Benedictine and Cistercian monks began concentrating the milk of the local white cows to make a hard, long-aging cheese that could sustain communities through lean seasons. By the Renaissance it was already being exported across Europe; the Este court at Ferrara served it as a luxury. In the nineteenth century, the cheese became one of the financial pillars of the Emilian economy: the Cassa di Risparmio di Parma and other regional banks developed a practice of accepting cheese wheels as collateral for agricultural loans — a practice that continues today at the Credito Emiliano, which warehouses over 400,000 wheels in its climate-controlled vaults. Each wheel, aged at least twelve months and more often twenty-four or thirty-six, weighs about forty kilograms and sells for several hundred euros. The Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortium, founded in 1934, guards the DOP designation ferociously, prosecuting imitations worldwide. The cheese literally underpins the regional economy: a bad year for cows means a bad year for loans. The proverb, then, is not hyperbole but accounting.
The proverb reflects the unique role of Parmigiano-Reggiano as a financial instrument in Emilia: since the nineteenth century, regional banks have accepted cheese wheels as loan collateral, a practice still active today.
A cheese producer explaining to a journalist why he is confident about his business loan
Non ho paura del debito. Ho duemila forme in stagionatura — al parmesàn al vàl òr, e la banca lo sa bene.
I am not afraid of the debt. I have two thousand wheels ageing — Parmigiano is worth gold, and the bank knows it well.
A tourist in a Parma market marvelling at the price of a wedge of aged cheese
— Costa così tanto? — Al parmesàn al vàl òr, signore. Trentasei mesi di stagionatura non si pagano con due lire.
— Does it cost so much? — Parmigiano is worth gold, sir. Thirty-six months of ageing does not come cheap.
A grandmother advising her grandson on what to bring as a gift when visiting relatives in the north
Porta una forma di parmesàn — o almeno un bel pezzo. Al parmesàn al vàl òr, e non arriverai mai a mani vuote.
Bring a wheel of Parmigiano — or at least a fine wedge. Parmigiano is worth gold, and you will never arrive empty-handed.
A food journalist describing the Emilian economy in an article
In Emilia dicono al parmesàn al vàl òr — e non scherzano: migliaia di forme sono depositate nelle banche come garanzia reale.
In Emilia they say Parmigiano is worth gold — and they are not joking: thousands of wheels are deposited in banks as real collateral.