That sounds like the former, to be honest. What I meant was, is there a black market of the big wheels of fake parmesan, with forged serial numbers, claiming to be approved by whatever body controls the name Parmigiano Reggiano. A plastic bag of grated cheese that says "100% grated parmesan" feels like it's not trying to claim to be real Parmigiano Reggiano. I can see why a Consortium would want to impose a strict definition in order to protect their product.
The problem is that it's a real black market, the cheese is stolen and sold on the black market without any assurance that it was handled or aged in the correct way, just as you would imagine in a black market.
So even if the source material is legit, the final product being sold is probably not.
And the illegal profits are hard to quantify, because it's a black market after all.
> there is a thriving black market, as an estimated $7 million in Italian Parmesan cheese has been stolen in just the last two years. Parmesan cheese has proven to be an ideal target for culinary criminals. In order to be certified Parmiggiano Reggiano, the cheese must age for at least a year.
