I.G.P. Vialone Nano rice: the traditional Fair returns in the autumn in Isola della Scala, near Verona
Year 2008 number 1
I.G.P. Vialone Nano rice: the traditional Fair returns in the autumn in Isola della Scala, near Verona
The countdown has already started towards the 42nd edition of the Fiera del Riso ('Rice Fair'), the traditional annual event that takes place at Isola della Scala in the Province of Verona and which represents Italy's most important occasion for analysing the state of the rice market.
Verona has been involved since the 1400s in growing this cereal, which arrived in Europe in the wake of Alexander the Great, and whose cultivation developed predominantly in the North of the country, in the Po River plain. The Verona area in particular produces the only Italian rice - and the first in Europe - to be guaranteed by the "Indicazione Geografica Protetta", which was obtained in 1996 following an extremely long bureaucratic process, begun five years earlier: Semifino Vialone Nano Veronese.
Today the Producers' Consortium has about thirty members, divided up between growers and rice mills. The Vialone Nano rice grown in the delimited I.G.P. area represents roughly half of Italian production of this variety: around 10 million kilos out of the 24 million produced overall.
I.G.P. Vialone Nano Veronese rice is cultivated in the clear spring waters of the plain to the south of Verona. Only rice grown in 24 communes of the Veronese plain – whose geographical hub is Isola della Scala – is entitled to protection under the European I.G.P. classification.
I.G.P. Vialone Nano Veronese rice reaches the consumer after undergoing a very simple production process, similar to that used in the old-time rice mills, of which a small number of working ones can still be admired in the zone. The grains of freshly-picked rice ('risone') have their husks removed and are then made white by rubbing. Modern technology facilitates and improves the quality of the work of men, but the product arrives on gourmets' tables without being subject to any form of chemical intervention or manipulation.
These characteristics go towards making this rice ever more highly appreciated by consumers and by chefs all over the world.
