When headlines started appearing about Italy's famous Parmigiano Reggiano facing extreme heat challenges, it might have been easy to dismiss the story as another climate curiosity, but business leaders should pay attention.
The issue is not simply that cheese producers are dealing with hotter summers but that a climate event affecting cows, feed supplies, storage facilities, energy consumption, financing mechanisms, logistics networks, and future production forecasts is creating disruption throughout an entire value chain. That makes this a supply chain resilience story, not a food story.
As reported by Euronews, extreme heat is affecting Italy's unique “cheese banks,” where aging Parmigiano Reggiano wheels are used as collateral for agricultural loans. Higher temperatures are increasing cooling costs, while heat stress on dairy cows is reducing milk production and creating uncertainty across the system.
According to Tony Pelli, Practice Director, Security & Resilience, the most important lesson isn't about cheese at all.
“The risk is really where that disruption starts. All the focus is on the cheese factory, the cheese warehouses, the places where the cheese is made. But if you actually look at the risk, it starts far upstream and continues far downstream as well.”
This is the challenge many organizations face today.
Most companies understand their direct suppliers. Far fewer understand how climate impacts, infrastructure vulnerabilities, labor availability, energy constraints, financing pressures, and logistics dependencies interact across entire supply networks.
The Parmigiano Reggiano story illustrates the problem perfectly:
- Extreme heat reduces grass yields.
- Feed availability affects dairy production.
- Cow health impacts milk quality and output.
- Aging facilities require more energy and cooling.
- Financing structures become stressed when inventories are affected.
- Future supply uncertainty drives market volatility and price increases.
None of these risks alone may be catastrophic. Together, they create what resilience professionals call compound risk.
As Tony Pelli notes, “The problem is not that the cheese is melting. It's that every input to the cheese is getting more expensive, less predictable, or both.”
This mirrors what organizations across sectors are experiencing, from manufacturing and technology to healthcare, retail, and critical infrastructure. Climate-related disruptions increasingly affect multiple parts of a system at the same time, often through interconnected pathways that traditional risk assessments fail to identify.
The story also highlights another emerging challenge: delayed impacts.
Parmigiano Reggiano can age for up to three years, and those wheels are often used as collateral to support current business operations. If climate disruptions affect today's production, organizations may feel the financial consequences years into the future.
“Companies need to think about not just the immediate impact of a supply chain disruption, but the knock-on impacts on financing and operations that may manifest a year from now, two years from now, or even longer.”
The broader lesson is clear.
Resilience is no longer about preparing for isolated events but understanding how interconnected risks move across people, suppliers, infrastructure, operations, and markets.
As climate-related disruptions become more frequent and severe, organizations that can map, monitor, and manage these dependencies will be better positioned to maintain continuity, protect value, and build long-term resilience.
Because today's supply chain disruption may start with a dairy farm in northern Italy.
But tomorrow, it could be your business.
