New Delhi, Oct. 22 -- The weeklong strike by 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 depends on a tightly timed supply chain.

Buffaloes have to be milked regardless of whether dairies are operating, while

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 on Wednesday couldn't be turned into mozzarella because of the transport blockade. The consortium oversees production standa...