Famiglia Cooperativa Brenta Paganella

The Brenta Paganella Cooperative Family was born in San Lorenzo in Banale along with what is the most typical product of the area and its history, the Ciuìga del Banale.

The town lies beneath the unmistakable profile of the Brenta Dolomites, and is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. It enjoys a particularly favorable location: The mountain, Lake Molveno not far away. the thermal baths of Comano in the valley below, and Lake Garda within a half-hour drive.

In the late 19th century, local families sold the noblest parts of the pigs they raised. In the winter months they used the less valuable parts by combining them with cooked and chopped white turnips to make ciuìghe, typical local cured meats, now a Slow Food presidium.

A consumer cooperative since 1893, the Brenta Paganella Cooperative Family is one of ten Cooperative Families in Trentino.
It is the result of the 1986 unification of the consumer cooperatives of San Lorenzo in Banale (first founded in 1893 by 94 members thanks to the initiative of Don Antonio Prudel), Andalo and Molveno. In the following years the cooperatives of Fai della Paganella and Spormaggiore were welcomed into the Family.
It has spanned two centuries of history and today continues its journey and daily service to local communities by reconciling modernity and respect for the inspiring principles of the cooperative movement and its traditions - even in a globalized world.
It is the custodian and producer of Ciuìga, a turnip salami once considered poor - it was born out of the need to enrich and supplement the little pork available - and which today is a masterpiece of pork butchery and the only Slow Food presidium in Trentino.