Besides being a typical fresh cheese from Apulian dairy art, Burrata is also the name of a project conceived within the activity of promotion of the Burrata di Andria PGI protection Consortium. The goal is to solve a decisive production problem: extending the too short shelf life of this product.
The current useful period within which Burrata di Andria PGI can be consumed is, on average, after no more than 10/12 days from production. This is a considerable limitation to the growth potential of the product, especially in markets such as South-East Asia.
To date, the cheese sector is the main food category in terms of business volume in Italy considering PDO and PGI products, with a production value exceeding 3.7 billion euros. In Apulia, the incidence of the sector is witnessed by an annual industrial production of 55,174 tons, growing uninterruptedly at an average annual rate of +6% since 2011. These numbers make this region the sixth in Italy, and the second in Southern Italy, for cheese production (Source: Istat).
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THE BURRATA PROJECT
The Burrata project aims to increase the shelf life, in compliance with the product specifications, while maintaining unaltered its microbiological and organoleptic characteristics. This would allow manufacturers to be protagonists in new and more distant markets. That is to say, precisely where some foreign companies are improperly exploiting the term “burrata” to launch on the market imitations that have nothing to do with the real Burrata di Andria PGI.
Longer shelf life will result in greater profitability for manufacturers, thanks to the positioning in new markets and the related increase in sales volumes. Without forgetting the value for the whole supply chain, also considering the higher demand for raw material.
The Consortium has also been the main promoter of the establishment of the Apulian Dairy District with the goal of building, together with the Apulia Region and the players of the supply chain, the future of the sector.
