The Gorza family began its entrepreneurial business in 1940, with the opening in Fonzaso (BL) of the first sawmill that traded timber from Eastern European countries.

Given the growing demand for hens and eggs, Mr Luigi Gorza decided to open the first laying hen breeding farm in Fonzaso, with its own hatcheries for the sale of chicks. Trade took such a good foothold that it stood out among the leading Italian businesses, going so far as to export poultry even to the Middle East, which was an extremely complex thing to do in those years.

With the increasing demand for meat, Mr Luigi Gorza realized the great potential connected with breeding pigs and he opened the first grand-parent pig farm in Riese Pio X (TV).

The pig farm grew so much that he decided to transform the poultry farms in Fonzaso into a new grand- parent pig breeding centre, always with a semi-closed cycle. Professionalism and growing reputation drove many European groups to seek a partnership with Gorzagri.

The company entered into a representative contract for Italy of female and male genetics with Nieuw Dalland, a company headed by the multinational Unilever, which was present in the pig farming market at the time. Gorzagri then introduced the (GP) Dalland grand-parent gilts in its centres in Riese Pio X and Fonzaso, becoming the first GP centre for the breeding of Dalland parent gilts outside the Netherlands.

A new farm was established in Pezzol, in the province of Belluno, which became the first active nucleus of Dalland pure-line sows, outside the Netherland. Here, the work of genetically improving the Large White Dalland line was launched in Italy. The main characteristic of the breeding centre was the high level of health controls making it the first in Italy and one of the first in Europe to have the specific pathogen free certificate.