The World DOP Festival will take place in Desenzano del Garda in March 2027. It is organised by Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Grana Padano Consortium, which has its headquarters in the town. DOP stands for Protected Designation of Origin, the European label for products tied to a specific area.
The announcement came on Monday, 5 October, from Stefano Berni, director general of the Consortium. He spoke at the Rocca di Lonato pavilion during the meeting “Coltiviamo l’Italia” (“Let’s Cultivate Italy”), promoted by the Fratelli d’Italia group in the Chamber of Deputies. The stated aim is to present and promote Italy’s DOP products around the world. The programme has not been released yet.
Why Desenzano del Garda
Desenzano is home to the Consortium for the Protection of Grana Padano cheese, founded on 18 June 1954 on the initiative of Federlatte and Assolatte. The cheese received its European DOP status in 1996. Its origins go back to the Cistercian monks of Chiaravalle Abbey, around 1135, who were looking for a way to preserve surplus milk.
The Consortium’s headquarters already hosts industry events. On 23 May 2026 it welcomed a seminar on the DOP economy by Origin Italia and the Qualivita Foundation, which included the presentation of Mauro Rosati’s book “La filosofia della Dop economy”.
The Grana Padano supply chain in numbers
In Lonato, Berni said the Grana Padano supply chain is worth 2.2 billion euros in the Brescia area. Nationally, according to the Consortium’s 2024 report, 5,635,000 wheels were produced (+3.2%), with 135 dairies and almost 4,000 farms in the DOP areas of Lombardy, Veneto, Piacenza, Piedmont and Trentino. Exports reached 51.2% of production.
Around Lake Garda, Grana Padano also has a mountain version. The Alpe del Garda dairy in Tremosine has made it since 2018 using only milk from Brown Swiss cows, producing 5,500 wheels in 2024.
The political backdrop
The Lonato meeting focused on livestock farming, the dairy supply chain, winegrowing, production costs, water resources and generational change. Undersecretary for Agriculture Patrizio La Pietra spoke of 16.8 billion euros in public investment for the sector and of a measure called “Coltivaitalia”, worth more than one billion euros, intended to strengthen the autonomy of national production.
