ST. LOUIS — If you’re in the business of making Italian meats such as prosciutto, which takes as much as a year to produce, “rapid growth” is a relative term.
“We try to do controlled growth,” said Lorenza Pasetti, CEO of Volpi Foods, St. Louis’ 119-year-old purveyor of dry-cured meats. “You have to be a little crazy to make these products because they take so long. It’s not like you can turn on a large volume at the drop of a hat. They have to be planned.”
Yet even with the time-consuming nature of the process, Volpi is making moves to address the speedy pace of increasing demand. The company last month opened its fifth production facility. The new 89,000-square-foot “conversion” facility in Union, Missouri, will be devoted entirely to slicing and packaging Volpi meats, including prosciutto, salame and pancetta.
The move is driven in part by rising consumer preference for charcuterie products, a movement that took hold prior to the pandemic but gained new momentum as consumers took to replicating restaurant-like meals while in isolation at home.
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