In 1885, following a sojourn in Argentina, Angelo Bettella, founder of the enterprise, returned to Rovato, in the province of Brescia and took up farming with a single hectare of land and just one cow.
Later, his four sons settled in the Parco Oglio Nord close to Cremona and threw themselves body and soul into working the land.
They understood the necessity for demanding, physical labour but also had an instinct for business.
Over the first decades of the new century, the Bettella brothers shared purpose and means and the family prospered. They worked assiduously and by reinvesting profits in the business prompted exponential growth.
By the 1950’s, the Azienda Agricola Bettella was one of the largest holdings in the Cremona area with 150 dairy cows and a cheesemaking facility. Within ten years, they had added a 100,000-strong poultry farm.
Though pigs were kept from the 1930’s, pig rearing was a marginal activity. A steady increase in numbers took place from the 1970’s and by 2000, pig rearing had become the central business of the Bettella brand.

The company’s present success confirms the intuition of the early years. During the 1970’s, two of Angelo’s grandsons, Giuseppe, then a twenty-year-old student and his cousin Mario, who worked in insurance, glimpsed future success for the company in pig rearing.
The time was not yet ripe for their unorthodox idea—which was to raise pigs for two years, cure prosciutto for more than five and produce other salumi of the highest quality. In addition, they wanted to return to using the whole pig, as dictated by tradition.
The idea became reality in 2010. Right from the start, Giuseppe, along with his sons Stefano and Mario and Mario’s wife, Ada, worked to a slower rhythm with unhurried rearing, attention to detail at every stage of production and considerable patience for the extended curing times.
Though it involved risk, their non-industrial outlook was a guarantee of excellence.
The registered trademark, Maiale Tranquillo^® was created to provide both an expressive name and a clear identification with 100% sustainable products.
The brand now caters to a niche market of prestigious shops and top-quality restaurants and is also joined by Michelin star chefs such as Paul Bocuse.
Bettella’s customers are concerned with real value rather than price in absolute terms.