A truckers' protest in southern Italy has halted the production of the famed buffalo mozzarella, blocking an estimated 3 million euros in just 24 hours as the milk cannot reach dairies in the Naples region and the finished cheese cannot reach customers, an official said.

The weeklong strike by the truck drivers over the high cost of diesel driven up by the Iran war has also blocked deliveries of other basic goods to supermarkets and left gas pumps empty in much of southern Italy.

The disruption is particularly damaging to buffalo mozzarella because the production of the protected cheese brand depends on a tightly timed supply chain.

Buffaloes have to be milked regardless of whether dairies are operating, while production rules require the milk of the water buffalos be turned into mozzarella within 60 hours of milking.

Pier Maria Saccani, director of the Consortium for the Protection of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP, said that about 1 million liters of buffalo milk produced in a single day couldn't be…