“The year in cheese”

Milk prices have dominated the scene, however their impact on speciality has been limited. The mass market has seen Cheddar slump by over 50p a kilo and ignited the usual price wars on an already devastated landscape. In this jungle the big have simply got bigger, the outcome being the same blandness everywhere.

The major retailers have had a harrowing year as changes in shoppers’ habits have seen people buying less, more often. Having lost trust in the big institutions, convenience and online have grown, but it’s yet a little early to tell if it’s too little too late. Speciality, regionalism and local types as a sector have not suffered the tumult in pricing that core cheesemaking has endured in the retail bear pit. Let’s hope that as milk returns to sane pricing there isn’t a dash for cash that abuses a stable market sector.

Sadly, we have seen the further demise of established names like Cricketer Farms. Like a number of mid-range makers, they were unable to achieve a realistic return, despite substantial investment and a quite successful move into reduced fat and premium prepacks. Founded in 1940 by Lord Beaverbrook to supply our wartime needs, 75 years later, there is no place for the different among the foreign-dominated megaliths of dairy. West Country Farmhouse Cheddar works hard to keep its position in retail, and stalwarts like Quickes and Keens are exceptions in the general decline in export recognition, which is some comfort. The helter-skelter kaleidoscope of flavours from the additive sector seems to has run out of steam and the classic types hold the main market access, with a few brands dominating the majors. No-one has really premiumised this sector. Rather, it’s been dragged lower by inferior copycats.

The trade has its characters and few cast a greater shadow than Juliet Harbutt, who is returning to the New Zealand scene and will be missed as an ambassador, publicist and opinion former. Cheese awards had another good year, with great turnouts in all the major competitions. Nantwich had over 4,600 entries, and World Cheese Awards, British Cheese Awards and others also reported that entries were up.

After some years of stagnation, the return of ethical farming, and specifically organic, is trending upwards again. Indeed, some milk shortages are evident as demand pushes up prices and creates a growing gap with standard milk prices. Higher disposable income is unquestionably a factor as consumers look for better quality and higher standards of animal welfare. People like Jody Scheckter and his team at Laverstoke Park have for years invested massively in returning the land to its natural condition and farming ethically. Their range of Buffalo Mozzarella, Gouda and other types is gaining traction steadily.

If we ever doubted it, the trade in 2015 has benefited from the subtle contribution of Yorkshire’s James Martin, because aside from his love of butter, James has used every opportunity to showcase great British artisan cheese, and never shirked his clear commitment to British farming. I suspect the specialist cheese trade has in James on ongoing fan. Exports too have continued to thrive. Around the globe, British speciality cheese has grown steadily, driven by an established group of exporters, but joined now by a host more. Whether in USA, Canada, Continental Europe, the Gulf region, the Far East, Japan and now China, the sight of familiar British cheese grows evermore common.

The return of the provenance cheeseboard is a delight to see. Menus now recognise the maker, the type, the subtleties of the cheese, in language as passionate and flowery as that reserved formally for wine. However, 2015 has had its winners and its losers. Halloumi keeps moving on, Comte and Manchego still create a bow wave, Red Fox is more widely distributed, mature Gouda recovers lost ground, and nothing disturbs the calm of Lincolnshire Poacher, Stinking Bishop or Colston Bassett. Meanwhile, Edam slithers and Cheshire dithers. But nothing is ever written in stone, and we may yet see some rising Christmas stars that will indicate trends to come in 2016.