Parma is the hub of Italy's so-called "food valley," home of the famous prosciutto di Parma, parmesan cheese, several major agricultural cooperatives and food processing plants, and, not least, the headquarters of Barilla pasta. Barilla is the 800-lb gorilla of the pasta business, producing 1,500 tons a day — one-third of the entire world output. Few companies anywhere can claim such a global reach, with 27% of the European market and 10% of all U.S. sales. In a stunning coals-to-Newcastle feat, Barilla has even become the leading pasta supplier to restaurants in Japan.
Founded 130 years ago by Pietro Barilla, Sr., the company is now run and 85% owned by the fourth generation of the Barilla family. With annual sales of $2.1 billion and profits of $99 million, it is one of Italy's biggest companies.
Shielding me with his oversized umbrella as we shuttle through Barilla's 3 km-long complex, communications officer Lamberto Prati reels off head-spinning facts and figures about this international pasta juggernaut: "Twenty subsidiaries around the world ... 400 products, 50 kinds of pasta, 20 sauces ... 9,000 workers worldwide ... 300 m of production lines in Parma alone, producing 1,000 tons a day." As the machinery roars, and a cloying odor of wet flour and eggs hangs in the hot air, I watch the automated, computer-controlled lines spew out endless varieties of pasta — spaghetti, tagliatelli, tortelloni, rigatoni, lasagna — then send them along to drying bins and, finally, into the automatic packaging machines. The production lines are so long that workers use bicycles to go back and forth.
Along with pizza, fast sports cars and high-fashion, pasta is known around the world as one of Italy's most emblematic products. The Mediterranean model of eating is being adopted in much of the Western world. Its basis is olive oil, fish and, of course, pasta. In the trendy, health-conscious U.S., that has been a major selling point for Barilla, and has helped the company become the number one seller on the American market only five years after starting its U.S. subsidiary.
"In America, people only started eating pasta about 10 years ago," says the company's Armando Marchi, over a dinner of prosciutto and fresh (not Barilla) ravioli at Parma's Gallo d'Oro restaurant. "At first, Americans viewed it as a sort of ethnic food, then it became popular because of the Mediterranean diet. But our success in the U.S. is mainly due to our sales to Italian restaurants, which respect our 'Made in Italy' image."
Well, pasta may be the great Italian dish, but is it the great Italian passion? Marchi smiles and shakes his head. "Italy has many different passions," he says. "The problem is that we are still not a united nation, but a conglomeration of regions. Thus the Italian always thinks of himself. We are the country of individualism — and that's the cause of all out problems today. The key unit is still the family, the clan. In many ways, Italy of today is still the italy of the 19th-century. The visions of Leopardi and Mme de Stael still hold true."
I could only rejoice over that fact as I walked back to my hotel and passed through the empty piazza. Parma's matchless 12th-century cathedral and Battistero glowed in the moonlight — and there wasn't a McDonald's in sight.
|
|
|
|
New Heights
From virtual life in a Geneva lab via a bird's eye view of the Alps to a pavement perspective of old and new in Greece and Rome
Photo Gallery
Check out the photos from this leg of TIME's Fast Forward Europe voyage
Insect Power
Software that imitates the behaviour of ants could make highway and telecom traffic more efficient
Firm Foundation
Scarred by war and restoration, the Parthenon gets a facelift
Next Revolution
The Palais de Tokyo, site of Paris' first modern art museeum, will re-open to showcase young artists
Italy's Future
Will center-right media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi regain the title in the spring? He's up against Rome's Mayor Francesco Rutelli in the center-left corner
Speaking in Tongues
Films in local Italian dialects are a surprise box-office hit
Sky's the Limit
A sneak preview of Airbus' three-decker superjumbo with its casinos, shops and piano bars
Fascinated by Fire
Public spectacle designer Yves Pepin on the need for fireworks, fountains and mass celebrations
A Greek Sojourn
TIME's Paris bureau chief Thomas Sancton discovers the old and new Greece
Songs of the South
TIME explores the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland
City of the Future
Toulouse could well be a model of multi-culturalism
The City That Always Sleeps
A visit to Geneva's wild side
The Mouse That Roared
TIME travels to Andorra, one of Europe's smallest countries
The Eternal City
>A trip through the glory that is Rome
Pasta Bella
A visit to Barilla, pasta purveyors to the world
Top Gear
TIME test drives a Ferrari | Photos
A Second Life
TIME meets Hollywood star turned restaurateur Leslie Caron
My Dinner with Claude
TIME dines Claude Nobs, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival
Thinking Outside the Sandbox
Innovative teachers in northern Italy are integrating technology into classroom life
Mind Trails
Forget Al Gore: TIME Speaks with the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee
A Brief History of the Higgs Hunt
Scientists in Switzerland may have solved one of the great mysteries of particle physics. Why should we care?
People To Watch: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann | Amélie Nothomb | Mirko Nesurini | Michel Meyer | Neil Barrett
|
