The Consortium was founded as the result of a desire on the part of a group of San Daniele residents to protect San Daniele prosciutto – one of the finest Italian delicatessen products covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), created thanks to a unique combination of natural elements with the knowledge and expertise of the local people.
We pursue our primary objective through the implementation of initiatives for the improvement of quality and the safeguarding of the typicality and characteristics of the product, the regulation of issues of common interest for the actors of the production chain and professional assistance and consultancy services for the producer members.
These objectives serve as a guide when it comes to the day-to-day management of the activities we are committed to undertaking ethically, meticulously and transparently.
Protection and supervision
“The Consortium’s activities are designed with the primary goal of protecting, defending and promoting the “Prosciutto di San Daniele” PDO in mind, by managing and safeguarding the corresponding production rules, economic policy within the sector and the applicable legislative requirements, and providing continuous support for its members”.
Quality Policy
The Consortium’s mission is to protect and promote the Prosciutto di San Daniele as a product of Italian excellence all over the world.
Protecting the product, trademark and denomination
We safeguard the typical characteristics and quality of the product by verifying that all actors involved in the production chain correctly adhere to the Production Specifications, which outline and regulate the processing stages the product must undergo and the characteristics it must have in order to bear the “Prosciutto di San Daniele” denomination.
This includes technical and productive standardisation and regulation where consortium members are concerned, notably regarding the application of the Production Specifications, ensuring that the high quality standards established by the Production Specifications are upheld, and other matters relating to promoting and protecting the product, such as labelling and consumer information.
In accordance with our Code of Ethics, Italian Law and European Union Regulations, the control of the production chain is entrusted to IFCQ Certificazioni – an independent control body supervised by the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF) and accredited by Accredia, the National Accreditation Authority designated by the Italian government..
Further protective measures relate to the registration of the “Prosciutto di San Daniele” branding and denomination in Italy and in the various European and non-European countries in which we operate.
1,842 inspections
across the entire value chain in 2019
21.2 million
certified packs of pre-sliced product
2.5 million
units of prosciutto certified
“The trademark registrations obtained by the Consortium in over 60 countries have also helped to protect the denomination”.
Security measures
We monitor for any abuses or illegal use of the trademark or Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) worldwide both during the product marketing stage and online, where we monitor to ensure that there is no misuse of Internet domains that are identical or similar to “Prosciutto di San Daniele”.
Such security measures are implemented by monitoring officers that essentially adopt a three-pronged approach:
Ordinary monitoring activities
We monitor both retail and wholesale stores and sample the product to ensure that it meets the requirements outlined in the Production Specifications.
Reporting-based monitoring activities
We verify commercial activities following reports received in relation to price or quality anomalies.
Online monitoring activities
We monitor the web to identify any misuses of the denomination or trademark in terms of both sales, and promotion and advertising.
591 inspections
carried out in Italy
167 inspections
carried out abroad
Verification of 300 sales and product presentation websites
Promoting the trademark
We organise product-based informative and promotional activities with a view to promoting and furthering awareness of the unique characteristics of Prosciutto di San Daniele and its nutritional properties. These mainly consist of the following types of promotional initiatives and information events:
Product promotion
The information and promotional events that we organise are a great opportunity to promote San Daniele prosciutto and to raise awareness of the product, its nutritional values and its historical roots.
3rd edition of the “Aria di San Daniele” tour
11,000 participants
12 cities
47 premises involved
35th edition of Aria di Festa
100,000 visitors
9 businesses open
8,000 guided tours
Informative events in Italy 39,000 people involved
Educate and increase awareness
We organise educational events for both those operating in the sector and consumers alike with a view to improving knowledge and promoting the product through the detailed study of the characteristics of San Daniele PDO prosciutto.
Educational events for supermarket chain operators
Over 200 participants
Consumer educational events
460 people involved
Activities abroad
Our communication and promotion activities extend to all global markets. Over the course of 2019, for example, we organised an intense communication and promotional campaign aimed at foreign markets, notably the USA and Canada, which included both on and offline information events and promotional initiatives.
69.220
People involved in educational events abroad
Services to consortium members
We provide technical and legal assistance and consultancy services on issues of common interest to our producer members. The virtuous synergy we have created is designed to improve production quality and safeguard the typical characteristics of the product and is expressed, in practice, through the following activities:
Support in managing environmental services
We support our consortium members in sustainably managing their production processes with the aim of reducing their environmental impact and protecting natural resources.
We streamline the contractual and administrative processes involved in providing environmental services so that we can create a positive impact on production sites in terms of economic savings and reduced environmental impact.
We assist producers with the following environmental services
WASTEWATER DISPOSAL
288,402 cubic metres of wastewater managed in 2019
WASTE MANAGEMENT
3,673 tonnes of solid salt disposed of in 2019
COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF ELECTRICITY AND GAS SERVICES
Savings in relation to the service protected in 2019:
electricity: 10.3%
gas: 12%
Training and consultancy
We support consortium members in their training and skill refreshment efforts, providing technical and legal advice on the latest regulations regarding production management with a view to promoting efficiency and safety across the production sites in question.
We establish a dialogue with consortium members and launch training and assistance initiatives, notably organising courses and events with experts on various topics, including exporting, health and food safety, safety in the workplace, privacy and data management.
We provided food safety training in 2019 for:
308 people from consortium companies
210 people from other food companies and bodies
Pledge management and generated value
Our support for consortium member companies also includes various initiatives designed to facilitate access to credit. In practical terms, this means entering into agreements with credit institutions and financial companies with the aim of supporting PDO production by facilitating the provision of the necessary financial resources.
Pledges in 2019
11 companies involved
Over 28 million euros in guaranteed credit lines
Positive impact
These agreements involve the provision of legs of pork destined to become Prosciutto di San Daniele PDO as collateral for the loans granted. in the framework of a synergistic initiative that reinforces the trust and recognition that credit institutions place in the value of the San Daniele prosciutto as a source of assurance.
Opportunities
Consortium member companies can access credit directly, via the agreements that exist between the Consortium and the credit institution, or indirectly, thanks to the agreements established with Confidi Friuli, with which the Consortium has been collaborating for over ten years. The credit granted is used primarily to cover producers’ current financial needs, notably with regard to the purchasing of raw materials, given that producers have a very long financial cycle due to the time it takes to obtain the finished product.
Our role
Our active involvement in this aspect sees us managing administrative and monitoring procedures relating to the fulfilment of the legal requirements regarding pledges on legs of pork and dealing with the corresponding registers. Furthermore, we take the necessary steps to ensure that companies are correctly displaying the pledge identification mark and complying with the Production Specifications in order to reassure the creditor with regard to the PDO of the legs of pork pledged.