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specialityfoodmagazine.com 29 SPECIAL REPORT THE VIEW OVERSEAS While the UK industry found ways to rebalance, so too did international cheese and dairy markets J ust as the past few months have reiterated the interconnectedness of British cheese and dairy market, it has made businesses which work with partners overseas and across borders rethink the way their relationships work – and the value they truly hold. Strong relationships were key to the relatively smooth-running of La Fromagerie during the turbulent spring and summer of 2020. “We have been in business for 30 years and have very good, long standing relationships,” explains Patricia Michelson, founder of La Fromagerie. “As we get a lot of products and fresh produce from Europe, we had to contend with very limited transport from these countries, and in Italy especially certain areas and regions were not sending up to our depot in Milan. We had a two week hiatus where nothing was coming in and where we were finding solutions minute by minute. In February we made quick visits to transport hubs and some suppliers in Milan and Paris to sort out logistics. This was the big issue we needed to address, and also to make sure our suppliers and transport felt reassured they were going to be supported by us through the pandemic. I believe by us going to see them at the very early stage was really appreciated and I have to say that we benefited from this.” For some international cheesemakers, it’s vital that retailer support and relationships are maintained during these challenging times. “We always try to support retailers, and in these uncertain times it is even more important,” says Helen Daysh of Le Gruyère AOP. Not least the experience and understanding of the end consumer. “We believe that enabling customers to taste our cheese is key, so we have invested in an outside branded portable gazebo and have 25g vacuum- packed pieces of Le Gruyère AOP to sample if this is appropriate. We welcome requests from retailers for future gazebo tasting dates and assistance with in-store tastings – as always, our samples and time would be free of charge to the retailers.” UK and European relations For Parisian cheesemongers COW, the biggest Covid-led shift was the almost immediate change in their customer base. “As we are located in UK and the European lactosphère is completely interlinked with fully integrated supply chain. Let’s hope that this will help to find a good solution for the future EU-UK dairy framework in our Brexit plans.” “The authorities at both EU and national level have been reactive to our requests, including ‘green lanes’ for fresh products when borders were closed and flexibility in packaging, and have freed up 30 million Euros to open the PSA scheme for cheeses,” explains Alexander Anton, secretary general of Euromilk. “This support has really helped, but it’s far from the 4 billion dollars given to the US dairy industry from their Government.” The American experience Despite this injection of funds, the US dairy industry is struggling to rebalance after the shock of the Covid-19 crisis. “Like many industries, the cheese industry is hurting and many small dairies and cheesemakers may not be able to weather this storm,” explains Amanda Parker, managing director of California’s Cowgirl Creamery. “We’re a scrappy bunch, so we’re trying to find ways to support each other and act creatively, but we’re depending on consumers to continue to buy American craft cheese and dairy nowmore than ever.” The growing industry is being more innovative than ever in its quest to educate the US cheese consumer: “There’s a new grassroots organization called Victory Cheese who’s trying to help the industry through awareness initiatives, collaborations, and victory cheese boxes (like our Good Neigbours box). The sudden change in shoppers’ focus from bricks-and-mortar to online was also keenly felt in America. “Our shops were a major physical touchpoint for our business, so we had to quickly reimagine the Cowgirl experience in order to meet this change in shopping, says We haveworked together with our international partners as a team, and such unknown territorymeant supporting each other was the priority.We are all facing the same global situation. Briefing our international suppliers with local insight andmarket needs, innovating andmoving fast have been key SUNIT MEHTA, ROWCLIFFE The Covid-19 crisis was for sure themost impactful momentum for the EU (and global) cheese industry since the 2014 Russian ban ALEXANDER ANTON, SECRETARY GENERAL OF EUROMILK an affluent area of Paris, we found that a lot of consumers in the local area were moving out of the city to spend time in their houses in the country when the lockdown first took hold,” says Antoine Farge, co- owner. “There were also no tourists around as there usually would be, but we benefited from being one of the few retailers considered vital enough to be kept open as we were selling food – that meant that our customer base grew, therefore more people were buying and appreciating quality cheese.” Perhaps surprisingly, Antoine and his business partner Alexandre Renault found little difficulty in sourcing cheese from overseas territories including the UK, apart fromwhere makers had temporarily ceased production. The connections and interdependence between the UK and European dairy and cheese markets have been highlighted by the crisis, says Alexander Anton, secretary general of Euromilk. “The Our export sales have remained positive, with notable growth in Asia (especially within the pre-pack category) SANDRA BELL, WENSLEYDALE CREAMERY ANTOINE FARGE COW AMANDA PARKER COWGIRL CREAMERY ALEXANDER ANTON EUROMILK COMMENTATORS Amanda. “We worked hard to make sure people could still get their fill of cheese by setting up new platforms to fulfill local online orders for curbside pickup as well as a short- termhome delivery service in the North Bay.” This swift pivot has long-lasting impact. “ Looking to the future, we’re assessing longer term changes to reflect the retail climate and shift in tourism—which will affect our retail locations — as well as shifting our own cheese formats to better serve our customers.”