Adam Henson’s
FOOD PROVENANCE CIRCLE BLOG
English Cheese
Broadcast 15th July 2020
Guest Speakers Catherine Mead, the owner and director of Lynher Dairies and Chairman of the Specialist Cheesemakers Association, and Martin Moyden, the Director and Cheesemaker at Moyden’s Handmade Cheese, educated our attendees on the challenges facing the industry and how these can be overcome.
What is the biggest challenge in cheesemaking?
Cheesemaking is an incredibly complex and organic process, thus for the smaller and less established businesses, it is the technical aspect that is most challenging. The Specialist Cheesemakers Association tries to support all of the technical challenges that are present in cheese production The second challenge is then market routes; a lot of cheesemakers are based in sparsely populated areas therefore the local market is very limited. The way to overcome this is to invest in sales if it is affordable, to open opportunities to supply wholesalers.
Success for cheesemakers lies in shorter supply chains, and in the last four months it has been noted that more consumers are requesting to come and buy directly from producers, but you have to be careful not to alienate any wholesalers that you are in business with. Engagement with customers has become more essential during the pandemic, but cheesemakers and producers are going to have to work hard to maintain that connection to their consumers as it will be really easy to revert back to old ways. Sharing the story of products reinforces the claims made about products – producers do a lot, and they don’t shout about it enough.
Thank you to all those involved!
#FoodStories #BuildingACommunity
