Caseophile

Small cheese survives a heart attack

I spoke to you a short while ago about a David and Goliath situation regarding the use of the word "Coeur" (heart) in brands of cheese in France. RichesMonts, a major cheese company sued, in a heavy-handed way, a tiny farmhouse producer from the Lozère area who had dared to name its cheese "Coeur de Vache", too close to their liking, to their major brand "Coeur de Lion". The National Institute for Industrial Property found in favour of the plaintiff saying there was a risk of confusion among the public between the two brands.

The Court of Appeal in Aix en Provence however has now found in favour of the defendant, and you can see why by comparing the two packs side by side.

Which prompts me to give pleasure to Marcel Gousseau, once a cheese professional and now a regular reader of the French version of this blog, with this selection of (current and past) cheese brands with "heart". Quite a collection.

And this prompts me (the translator) to wonder if, among British readers of this site, there are some who are old enough to remember having in childhood a collection of cheese labels alongside their postage stamps and foreign coins!

Green light from Brussels for the takeover of Parmalat by Lactalis

Objections will not be forthcoming from the authorities concerning competitive legislation: they have given the green light to the Lavallois group.

Nor, it is said, from the main banking shareholder of Parmalat, Intesa-San Paolo, who appear at last interested by the financial offer.

Result of the takeover: 8^th July. Worth following!

A St Nectaire get-together

It was announced in the press this past fortnight that Wälchli and Lactalis are joining forces. Discreetly called "mutual support", it aims to provide finance to significantly increase the production site in Condat in the Auvergne, producing 2000 tonnes of standard St Nectaire laitier (=made in dairy) and 350 tonnes of farmhouse.

All to make Condat into the future capital of St Nectaire, according to a journalist of La Montagne newspaper. This factory extension will include a visitors' gallery, adding tourism to its attractions.

N.B: Lactalis already produces 750 tonnes of St Nectaire laitier in its plant in Allanche, not far away.

French milk farms down 50% in 15 years

For a detailed picture, go into the France Agricole (in French) site but here are the headlines...

78,362 agricultural sites produced milk in 2010 with an average per unit of 313,928 litres compared with 149,000 sites in 1995... each one producing at that time 150,000 litres. In particular take a good look at the article the analysis of France Agrimer and you'll find a very telling article (in French), showing a graph of this decline in sites and increase in production!

Yoplait under American control and Lactalis joins Parmalat

Well that's what I learned a couple of weeks back on the radio and had confirmed what I quickly read on business websites, it was General Mills, its US partner, who acquired a remaining 51% of the brand for around 1.6 billion euros

The partner distributing Yoplait in North America for more than 50 years, GM is already strong in the French market. (For those unaware... in no particular order... they've Green Giant, Häagen Dazs, Monster, Old El Paso).

And as for Lactalis, it appears they have had the "consolation" of not having succeeded in winning back these investments, by joining in with Parmalat, a strong contender also in yoghourts and other sectors.

Not good news for the poor Chinese potential buyer – Bright Food - who are tied up in their country with Nestlé and Danone, whose offer was higher than that of General Mills...

Philadelphia: Kraft tries again to get into the French market

At the start of last year I discovered that Kraft were trying to re-enter the French market with its (world No. 1) Philadelphia cheese spread – but only business-to-business (to restaurants, bakeries and producers of ready to serve meals).

A few days ago, the French professional press made great news of the fact that Kraft was to launch a consumer test market in the town of Angers – speculating as to whether this time around the local St Môret brand would stand up against such a cheaper alternative. The website Le Post goes as far as asking "will the country that gave us camembert allow itself to be seduced by an American spreadable cheese?"

But the French are not that chauvinist when it's a question of price ... they buy German emmenthal at Aldi stores if it's cheaper than others... particularly for putting on pasta or as a gratin.

The real question is nonetheless is to know if the French consider a spreadable cheese as real cheese, or just an ingredient. And also to see how Bongrain and Lactalis (which has just launched a similar product under its Président brand) will react. Others have already given it a try without success...

Brie de Meaux 2010 Contest … here are the winners

The 31^st annual Brie de Meaux cheese contest took place a few weeks ago during the Autumn Fair in Meaux. The top three this year were:

1. Société fromagère de la Brie from Saint-Siméon in Seine et Marne (77) – matured by Loiseau
2. Société fromagère de Raival from Raival (55 = Meuse) – matured by St Faron
3. Fromagerie Dongé from Triconville (55 = Meuse)

Bravo to the three winners. You can find photos of these cheeses on Pierre's website (he's a most interesting man with a most interesting site).

Lactalis – Ebro Puva merger: Green Light from the European Commission

Last March, the French Lactalis group and the Spanish Puleva (acronym for Pura Leche de Vaca) announced an agreement in principle about the sale of the dairy activities of the Spanish business had been signed, subject to approval by the European Commission.

The relevant authorities considered that there was no risk of excessive concentration in the primary market for Spanish milk.

As the press release said: The Commission also did not foresee any problem of competition further down the line in milk sales whether basic long life milk, flavoured milk, health milk, cream or horchata. I wondered what was this Horchata de Chufa (it's a sweetened drink or orgeat de souchet which is drunk instead of cow's milkin the Valencia region.

Chufa is a plant from the papyrus family from which only the tuber is used. There even exists a PDO "Chufa de Valencia" And it's also made into a well-known oil!

Buffalo Yoghourt ... from Eric Morin

It's not been found here in France until now, and it's a company in Brittany which has had the idea of launching it ... a choice for the forthcoming SIAL food salon in October under the heading "innovation", something that is beginning to be known and talked about...

I've not yet had a chance to try it, but buffalo milk is very different from that of other ruminants, such as cow or goat or sheep.

And the manufacturer says on his site:

Buffalo milk yoghourt contains 157% more iron than cow's milk, as well as more proteins and calcium, and delivers 43% less cholesterol than cow's milk.

With such properties, it helps regulate passage through the intestines and the digestive system.

As well as having an exceptional taste.

Try it, you'll be surprised!

Signed: Eric Morin, a producer with really interesting ideas.

“1000 cheeses in stock”

When I came across this on the net a few weeks back I wondered who could be behind this claim. Certainly not a cheese maker; it could be a distributor... but who would it be?

You'd quickly reach this quantity if you were a wholesaler in the Parisian Rungis market (Odéon for example would be one such suspect ... among several)

But in fact I find that it's a Canadian organisation!! Check in on the Canadian business internet site to find out more. And feel your mouth water.

Merger of milk cooperatives in West France

The two major milk cooperatives from the west of France – Glac and Eurial came together this past week. Their combined operation will in 2011 represent:

• 2 billion litres of milk (300 million of which will be goat)
• 10,000 milk producers
• 2,650 personnel
• €1.3 billion turnover
• 20 production units in Poitou-Charentes, Pays du Loire, Bretagne and Auvergne

Products: butter, consumer milk, cow and goat cheese, cream, dry (industrial) products

Main brands: Soignon, Grand Fermage (for Eurial) – Lescure, Saint Loup, Bougon and Surgères (for GLAC).

Boxes...little boxes … how will we cope without them?

I learned last week of the difficulties which have beset CIBEM in St Pierre sur Dives in the heart of the Pays d'Auge in Lower Normandy, a company which produces every day a million or so of wooden boxes for camembert. In fact they have officially declared bankruptcy. Let's hope that somebody will soon take them over

And for those who did not know it, the wooden box was invented in 1890 by a M. Ridel to assure the transport and preservation (as it matured) of camembert, as the wood regulated the humidity of the cheese...

Fromalp back under Swiss capital: Emmi buys Fromalp from Hochland

Hochland. An important German player in the European cheese world, known to us in France for its sliced and soft cheese activities... as well as its two cheese production units in the Meuse area, making brie and camembert, which were bought in 1978 from Löwenbrück in Dieue sur Meuse and from Henri Hutin in Lacroix sur Meuse.

They also took over in 2006 the activities of the FROMALP company based in Zollikofen (in Berne canton), a top quality player in the Emmentaler market, for raclette as well as soft cheeses.

Then just two weeks ago we learned that Fromalp was about to be bought by Emmi, provided that the competition authorities agree.

It's an opportunity for them to strengthen their position in the international market, so says the official press release ... and it's one less actor on the scene in Switzerland...

French milk price battle could still boil over

An average increase in price of 9-10% compared with Q2 2009 has recently been more or less agreed on one clear condition: a start in the negotiations to fix new indices to calculate milk prices must take place before 31^st May of this year.

These new indices need to take into account the gap in the price of French milk compared with German milk, and also production costs as well as world prices for industrialised milk products (butter and powdered milk).

This is in the context of major disagreements between milk producers and users which led to recent blockades outside dairy product factories all over France, as well as tyres and straw bales set alight in protest along motorways and main roads by farmers. Not a happy picture.

Everyone is concerned by profit margins in this fight between town and country. And it's all very important for France – milk provides a livelihood throughout the country and a healthy contribution to its balance of payments, as little liquid milk (other than some organic milk) is imported here and we export far more milk products than we import.

Hands off our Roquefort!

It was all spelt out on French TV a week or so ago in a programme called "Roquefort – a masterpiece in danger".

So is Roquefort – the flagship of French cheese – under threat? Ten years ago, José Bové and his peasant confederation wrecked the MacDonald's in Millau in protest against the high taxation that Americans put on Roquefort. Now, a decade later, Roquefort still suffers from a 100% tax and the US is considering multiplying this burden by 3!!

In France, Roquefort has already much competition. It's not a cheese like any other – but extremely complex to produce...as is well known. And cheap versions of Roquefort have appeared, less costly to make and more practical for the consumer. The biggest producer has even brought out his own competitive version – using pasteurized milk. Nonetheless, there are a few stubborn consumers and producers who are sticking to the real thing.

Let's just hope this does not simplify the problem too much.

Cheese made in Altaï

Grumbles have come loud and clear from the Comté region as it has been announced with pride that a Comté of Altaï cheese is being made. Altai as many of you may know is in Russia!

Now Comté is of course an AOC (PDO) and can only be produced in a well defined area, in fact in certain clearly specified parts of the Franche Comté in France.

So what is this story all about? A storm in a cup of milk is how Macommune.info referred to it (using an adaption of the French equivalent phrase!) It's well known that farmers in general and milk producers in particular are suffering a crisis at present and yet we learn from the press that the ENIL in Mamirolle is said to be helping the Altaï region by transferring technology which allows them to launch a 12 month "Comté de l'Altaï" at the Salon de l'Agriculture here … it's like a stab in the back. From a legal point of view, it's a misappropriation of an AOC.

The region has explained (check this site) that this is not involving a transfer of technology but only a batch produced for the Salon etc. etc. Plus the fact that there is a programme "to improve the quality of existing local production (soft cheeses, processed cheeses, hard cheeses) in the hope long term of developing exports of Franche-Comté products: wines, cheeses, cheese making equipment…) Be that as it may!

An AOC must remain unique.

And to usurp an AOC should not be tolerated.

My Swiss friends will not contradict me – especially those who were forbidden by international law in 1998 to sell under the name Champagne, a still wine produced on 28 hectares situated in the charming commune of Champagne in the Vaud canton. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, isn't it?

An interesting insight into the French cheese market

I read it in the Figaro newspaper earlier this month. If you'd like to check it out it's an article by Eric de la Chesnais on www.figaro.fr -in French.

The article is called "camembert kicked around by feta and mozzarella"

Yes for some years, camembert has no longer been the most popular cheese in France (but was it ever?) – and it's now emmental.

Historically, one has a tendency to forget that the development of camembert across the nation only dates from after the First World War, when cheese makers in Normandy were awarded the contract to supply the army. It was in fact easier and quicker to make a small cheese requiring only 2.2 litres of milk with a short maturing period - 2-3 weeks maximum, rather than a large cheese needing a thousand litres of milk and at least 4 months maturing!!

So, what could be found in the knapsack of the poilus before "The Great War"? Emmental…

And you wondered why emmental is France's most popular cheese!

So much so, that 80% of emmental is sold already grated. And it benefits from a strong trend: the use of cheese in cooking, more a part of today's habits than a cheese platter at the end of a meal.

Moreover, in this article in Le Figaro, references are made to an official campaign run in other countries, aimed at boosting the consumption of French cheese all around the world (30% of French production is exported – mostly in Europe at present – but also to Japan and the USA).

A range of countries in fact, where cheese consumption differs considerably.

NB: I'm quite surprised to read in Le Figaro that "brie de Coulommiers" is in no. 3 position in cheese consumption in France. In my humble opinion, there is a confusion here between brie and coulommiers, (both soft cheeses distinct from camembert by their size) and I had the thought that it was brie that was no. 3 cheese chez nous and that Coulommiers came after … but perhaps the figures have now changed. I'd better just check…

A new European organic logo as from 1st July 2010

Up to the present time, the use of the European organic logo has not been obligatory. We could just use the French AB symbol shown here. (The French for "organic" is "biologique").

As a marketing person, I understood perfectly well why the French turned their noses up at the European logo, as it was miserable… and unclear (you needed glasses to read it!) But after some lobbying, the organic community got permission to choose another logo. And had a competition to choose from three short-listed proposals.

127,000 respondents voted (including me) and here's the result:

Bright, modern, dynamic … no explanatory text to take account of the diversity of languages – something I regret, as frankly just to look at it does not immediately identify organic agriculture… bur perhaps wording may be added at a later stage.

Click here for more data on the Organic agency site (in English)

Gruyere overtakes Emmental(er)

This has occurred in Switzerland, it goes without saying.

For the first time, the production figures for Gruyere AOC (PDO in the UK) have topped those of Emmentaler AOC. Swiss media have spoken of it copiously since the end of last month.

From January to November 2009, 26,300 tonnes of Gruyère PDO were produced against 23,480 tonnes of Emmentaler PDO.

It shocked some people. Le Gruyere has been the most popular cheese in Switzerland for a long time, while tons of Emmentaler have built the reputation of Swiss cheese around the world for ages.

In the USA, isn't "Swiss Cheese" the name they give to emmental (which I am writing here with a small "e" because it is not an AOC - it's pasteurized and in fact it's made over there)?That's something I would simply refer to as "vulgus emmentalus".

;-)

Indeed it's all these "holey" cheeses which are the main competition to Emmentaler PDO! Much more so than good old Le Gruyere PDO… It's a tricky problem because if I talk to you about Emmentaler PDO, this definition of product quality is only recognised in Switzerland, as the word "emmental" refers in the codex alimentarius to a generic cheese. Also there does exist in Europe an Emmentaler PDO – in fact, Allgauer Emmentaler, from the Allgau in Bavaria.

So Brussels could never recognise the Swiss PDO as Emmentaler PDO unless it was called Emmentaler Switzerland or Schweizer Emmentaler – something the Swiss do not accept.

Not surprising as they claim from the rooftops that the word "emmentaler" means "coming from the valley of the Emme". (And remember that in French shops, you see this sort of cheese marked as "emmental français").

A semantic dispute, therefore? Rather, it's a battleground for lawyers – and with a lot of money at stake. A long fight – likely to "cost a salad bowl" as the Swiss would say.

Meantime, a tip from me: if you come across an Emmentaler PDO with a black rind, have a taste: it will have had been matured for a year in natural caves dug into the rock. It's my favourite!

It's on sale in some cheese shops in France – or you can try it on the Swiss stand at the current Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris!     

Putting Mozzarella di Buffala’s house in order

The Italian Ministry of Agriculture has very recently placed the Mozzarella di Buffala PDO under administration for 60 days after discovering a mixture of cow's milk with buffalo milk … a mixture containing more than 10% of the former in 100 out of 530 samples analysed. 15 of the 130 producers were involved. Including none other than the President of the PDO consortium in person.

Of course you will be aware that buffalo milk is more expensive that cow's milk…

No health risk is involved, only an enormous fraud, flying in the face of local practice which has been steadfastly honest in its activity as a PDO - it's as if one had added some cow's milk to sheep's milk to make a cheaper Roquefort!

Foolish on the part of those indulging in this little game, and a pat on the back to the Italian authorities, who have proved their efficiency in enforcing respect of the law. But it's an event to hit an activity already badly affected by the contamination of its herds by dioxin in 2008

Bongrain in Tunisia

The news came out around the year end. The Bongrain company has joined up with the Tunisian food group Délice to develop a cheese range under the brand name Milkana Délice.

Délice operates principally in milk-based food products and was created in 1978 by its pioneer, Monsieur Meddeb. In the 1990's, the group went into partnership with Danone. Today the Délice group has nine companies, six involved in production and one in marketing as well as an agricultural and a property company. It is the unchallenged leader in the milk business, in particular since its purchase in 2005 of the "Laino" concern.

Its press release is to be found on various websites such as African Manager.

Terrible weather - who pays the bill?

Well there is a tendency to underestimate the economic consequences of heavy snow or icy rain. The first effect as far as cheese is concerned is that very often the milk cannot be collected because transport is suspended.

If indeed it is possible in theory to collect milk only every 48 hours when making some cheeses, it's not always the case (some AOC requirements specify a daily collection as the milk continues maturing even when cold), and this past month certain milk producers sometimes only had deliveries once in a week.

And also cows need milking every day… the capacity to stock it on the farm has its limits … and what do you do with milk that's not collected?? So the question no. 1 is: should the farmer be the one to get the bill for this non-collection? The answer is definitely no.

Another consequence is that the cheese producers are unable to deliver to the warehouses which in turn cannot despatch to retailers = so they all lose out all along the line.

So promise me to think twice before waxing lyrical about the countryside laden with snow, where lorries cannot get through!

Which reminds me of the plateau of Le Cézallier in the Auvergne, where a man collecting milk for a bottler was found dead only 300 metres from home some 15 years ago, because his truck was blocked by a snowdrift and he had tried walking back, but got lost in a snowstorm…

 

A distributor of raw milk in Lorraine

I mentioned this idea I had seen near Lyon back in May 2008 and it's spreading.

In Lorraine, the Alcanagri company has installed in the car park of the Auchan hypermarket in Tomblaine a self service dispenser of raw (unpasteurised) milk. It got onto the regional television news: the machine is cleaned out (like a milk tank on farms) and filled every morning early and for €1 you can fill your own container – and enjoy superb top quality raw milk. Which you can use to make nice soft white cheese.

As a TV journalist stated, the unit had been placed at no charge by the hypermarket, the director of which stressed that it represented no competition to his business as no raw milk was on sale on his shelves … and especially since this allowed him to maintain good relations with the farming community…

I'll make a trip to try some … if indeed there is any left!

The Italian cheese market in the doldrums

It's the Italian consumers who can be happy - cheese prices have been sliding in Italy. By about 6%. But it's catastrophic for cheese makers and milk producers!

The quarterly report of the ISMEA institute (www.ismea.it) indicates that the price of milk paid to producers is down around 5% since 2000 and the revenue from the major cheese categories has declined in the 3^rd quarter:

• "young" Grana (12-15 months): -7%
• Mozarella from cows: -7% also
• Gorgonzola: -6%
• Parmiggiano Reggiano: -2.5%

They are not too happy on the other side of the Alps…

 

Sheep milk producers up in arms

Don't think it's just producers of cow's milk who have been up in arms recently against the price of milk… Even if sheep's milk costs more than cow's milk as there's less on the market place, and also because its yield in terms of cheese is superior, its composition is very different and the conditions the sheep rearers are experiencing have worsened in the same way as their neighbours involved in cow's milk.

In the spotlight: price increases over 3 years to compensate for last year's big increase in raw material costs, whether feed, maize, cattle cake, lucerne, all suddenly challenged by buyers…

A month ago, the protests were felt around the town of Roquefort… a week ago it was milk producers from the Pyrénées Atlantiques department who expressed their feelings, particularly as milk production is hardly over-abundant in their region.

For the time being, there are no signs of concern from goat owners … although their way of life has been similarly affected.

Consumption of milk products on the wane

The figures are dramatic! Minus 12% in 8 years (from 2 studies by the AFSSA in 98/99 and 06/07).

The decline is more marked among seniors (-28% among men and -38% among women) – it's minus 16% among adult females and approx. -20% among adolescents. More than one half of men, two thirds of women, two thirds of boys aged 13-17 and two thirds of girls have a lower intake of calcium than the recommended level according to a national nutrition study (ENNS) undertaken in 2006.

Ouch! What's being done about it?

I find it hard to understand why it was only a week ago – years later than this report - that measures started to be taken to deal with this problem through the launch of a publicity campaign entitled "consume 3 milk products per day".

So where do I stand in all this? We're not all built the same way, but I promise you that my blood tests are tip top… I don't have any excess of triglycerides (you need some cholesterol to keep alive… but not too much…), I have a perfectly correct calcium level in my blood … I'm lucky, I know!! What should be bad news is that I abide (almost always) by the 13^th saying of our favorite epicurean Brillat Savarin that – a meal without cheese is like a beautiful woman who has lost one eye… and even after 20 years of heavy cheese consumption (2kg / week on average), I've never got sick of it and it's not done me any harm!

The bank that likes to say cheese

A novel way of dealing with the economic downturn appeared on the BBC news website today, August 31^st. A deal made by Parmesan cheese makers to offer their stock of cheese as collateral for loans from the Italian banks. Find out more of the current BBC News website and watch the video just after the ad !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/ 

and there are two more videos on this topic !

one more

another

Mmmm!

Direct selling: a way to make more profit?

There again, it’s never black and white…

As a principle, if you can make a product and fix the price yourself with the final consumer (without dealing with middlemen), you should be on a winning ticket.

And yet it’s easy to forget that the intermediaries are not simply buying to sell on immediately without incurring any costs! Let’s take an example I know only too well, the lengthy process of turning milk into cheese.

The “added value” takes into account the following different steps (and I may be missing out a few, as it’s a long and not exhaustive list – nor does it apply to certain cheeses)

-       collecting milk to bring it to a transformation centre

-       bacteriological and physico-chemical analysis of delivered milk : milk is not just a simple white liquid. It contains flora composed of milk cells, bacteria, yeasts, moulds, fatty matter, a level of protein etc… Therefore one has to undertake a daily analysis to check that it does not contain any harmful bacteria (either for humans or for the quality of the cheese itself) and also to align the manufacturing process to the daily volume brought in

-       storage, when necessary

-       acidifying the milk and adding rennet: the starter cultures can take more or less time to work (it can be up to 18 hours)

-       curdling of the milk in rooms at the right temperature and the right hydrometric level

-       time spent in a vat (depending on the type of cheese, more or less power is required. For example with those hard cheeses which are cut into small beads the size of corn seed and then stirred vigorously and heated up to 52-55° to remove as much humidity as possible through evaporation.

-       shaping: in one movement or several

-       salting: with dry salt in brine for between a few minutes and a few weeks, depending on its individual recipe

-       ripening: the “affineur” does not simply look after the cheeses as they mature – so you must pay his wages.

-       packaging: box or wrapper, paper, final shaping, protective film or plastic container, delivery cartons … to say nothing of the personnel costs involved in manufacturing, packaging, administration, R and D, quality control, marketing etc…

-       not forgetting maintenance staff, suppliers, technical development, packaging etc, etc.

-       then selling onward to a wholesaler: transport costs for collecting these cheeses together      

-       with those of other regions; warehousing them in cold storage with controlled humidity so that they do not dry out. Cost of warehousing and commercial and administrative staff, cleaners…

-       selling onward again to a distributor : costs of delivery to store. General operating costs of the retail outlet (sales staff, admin costs, advertising, out of date produce, stolen stock etc, etc.

I am sure I’ve forgotten something. But it’s clear there is a multitude of operations between the delivery of the milk and the purchase of the cheese in store – and that all these operations provide employment for people to earn money which they can then spend buying milk products… and what if they were not earning?

But all this is only my opinion…

And if you look at the stages gone through in the meat business for one moment, I still remember the comment of a man who raised cattle, saying how pleased he was to work with industrial clients and big retail chains because they took his meat by the carcass rather than asking for bits and pieces, as was the habit of individual consumers coming direct to him for their meat.

Where does milk come from, Mummy?

In case town bred little darlings do not know, this adorable cow on the packs of ORLAIT milk on sale in France should dispel any doubts. And there are further facts on the box to interest consumers, young and old, under the heading – "Did you know?"

• With their 90,000 milk producing farms, French dairy farmers produce 1 litre of milk each day for every French man, woman and child (in other words 65 million litres a day = my way of being precise)
• In France, milk producers use as few chemicals as possible on their farms: in that way they are looking after nature…

Marie's French website has featured for the past year a petition for readers to sign to support our milk producers, entitled "j'aime les éleveurs laitiers". Since this embattled profession has begun demonstrating in towns and on supermarket parking areas to gain support, the number of sympathisers there has doubled! If you are in sympathy and your French is sufficient, log in yourself!

 

Entremont in difficulty

All is not well with the third largest dairy company in France - the Franco-Belgian cheese group Entremont (two thirds of whose capital is held by the Albert Frères finance house).

34 million euros loss in 2008 and another 10-12 million announced for the first half of 2009. This group, based in Savoie and Brittany (the Breton connection has strengthened since they joined up with the Unicopa co-operative from Guingamp), has been trying to join forces with partners who can give them support. I had already read last autumn some articles on this subject – at the time when Entremont became the first to try to make milk producers reduce their prices. But things have become serious with the involvement of the CIRI (the Inter-ministerial Committee for Industrial Restructuring)

The key issue: the worldwide fall in prices for industrial products and milk products … among others.

It remains to be seen how this crisis will pan out and who will take over (or be allowed to take over) this or that part of the business.

There are a number of interested parties.

The temperature is rising in the milk world

Yes, it's boiling over!

Would you agree lying down to your income taking a drop of the order of 30%? According to the FNSEA trade organisation, the price of milk (In Normandy this is, but this calculation is usually regional) fell from €303 per thousand litres in April 2008 to €211 in April 2009.

That's why milk producers are expressing their discontent with strength and determination. To all the players in the milk and cheese world.

So the Gillot cheese factory in St Hilaire de Briouze and the Danone establishment in Bray (Normandy) have been cordoned off, straw and manure have been dumped on the Lactalis-Rodez site (dealing in milk, cheese and powder) and representatives of this concern have been showered with milk and milk powder etc.

It's nothing new! I recall how a dozen years ago, I was imprisoned in my office in a location isolated from the rest of the town, with lorries unable to come in to deliver milk or to go out to deliver finished products, and with the air full of the smoke of burning tyres…

You must know two things

1. France is not reaching its annual milk quota

2. Producers have been forced to produce more at the very time that there is a worldwide shortage of milk… and those who have played the game and significantly exceeded their quotas are penalized twofold by a tax (over 20%) … as well as by the collapse of world prices, when their aim was simply to increase revenue.

Not easy to stomach.

For anyone.

Including those using the milk in other products.

Milk is on the boil!

For the past month, milk producers have been boiling over.

This is because when consumption goes down, cheese producers cannot up their prices. And so can't afford to pay a higher price for their raw material, as this would see their profits melt away "like butter in a pan", as journalist Christine Colmont put it so precisely in an article in Moneyweek.

And this could in fact lead to a European milk war, as the newspaper La Dépêche said on 30^th April. Marian Fischer-Boel, the European Agricultural Commissioner is being sent 300 bottles of milk from the four corners of Europe, according to the Agrisalon newsletter a week or two ago (in French) and even the Swiss are likely to be affected.

So the whole industry is jumpy. While the cows happily found their rich grass over a month ago, the milk business in total is subject to fierce arguments over the questions of liberalisation and quotas. There does not seem an easy way out! And even after the signature of a national compromise last week (at 285€/ton), fiever is still there in agricultural France, with companies blocked...

“The French Cheese Club” plans to export

I have discovered a group of French cheese makers who have come together to promote the export of their cheeses.

It's "The French Cheese Club" comprising

Rivoire-Jacquemin, specialising in Comté cheese

Berthaut with its Epoisses cheese

Lincet for its Chaource and Brillat Savarin

Graindorge from Normandy with its 5 regional cheeses

L'Etoile du Sud, a group of various small cheese makers around the Vercors, known for its St Marcellin and Verdier (Rocamadour).

 Set up in March 2007, it is only recently gone on line… aiming to promote traditional cheeses, essentially from PDO regions.

 Worth looking into!

Emmi buys a majority share in the Swiss firm Nutrifrais

A recent announcement has come from Emmi that it has acquired a 60% stake in Nutrifrais, a subsidiary of the Laiteries Réunies of Geneva, which produces fresh dairy desserts under the brands Tam Tam (very popular in Switzerland) and Yoplait.

The news not only affects Switzerland, as the Bongrain group already has a significant share in Val d'Arve, the cheese subsidiary of Laitières Réunies, and has had agreements with the Emmi group since 2004 in the area of soft cheeses.

Raw milk crisis in Quebec

There's not been much coverage in France, but nonetheless our Quebec cousins are in the midst of a storm. Economic and especially hygienic. And it all started last autumn.

There was a listeriosis epidemic which led to more than 20 deaths. But whom to blame? Quebec's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) made a thorough investigation. And of course found listeria in raw milk cheeses from two artisan producers in Quebec. But also – and especially – in meat (see the Radio Canada article). (All websites in this report are in French)

Too late! Precautionary principles meant that several tons of cheese were destroyed at their producers, as well as at dairy shops, in a spectacular operation which naturally left its mark at the heart of the Quebec cheese food chain.

"In two hours, they threw away four years of my work" declared Nathalie Filion, of the Caseus & Cy boutique in Quebec, a well-known cheese merchant, quoted by a number of Canadian journalists. Including those from La Vie Agricole publication.

And they are talking more and more now about the "adolescent crisis" of the Quebecois raw milk business … a relatively new sector, which began at the beginning of the 90's and had its first run-in with the authorities in Ottawa in 1996, which had to give up the idea of banning its production, following pressure by liberal Congressmen throughout the country – subject to one condition : the imposition of a minimum 60 day maturing period.

I won't recount to you here the history of the Quebecois raw milk cheese operation as others have already done so. But here are some links offering interesting insights – Cyberpresse.ca, a video of a producer, P. Chaput and an article in the newspaper Le Devoir talking about the negative gastronomic effects of the restriction.

I recall having discussed this issue at a SIAL event in 1996 with the principal Quebecois importer of French cheeses, when we confirmed to him that listeria, a bacteria present in the environment and regularly found in milk and therefore also in raw milk cheese (it is eliminated by heating it) does not resist "long term" to the other bacteria present in raw milk. So there's no risk with cheese that's been matured at 60 days plus, which all goes to explain why a cheese can be found "positive" one day and "negative" when tested for a second time.

Also that the cheeses most at risk are those with a short maturation period, particularly young cheeses just put on sale. In other words, the older the cheese, the less listeria it has.

To finish this note, you should know that there is a group on Facebook called "No to the disappearance of Quebecois raw milk cheeses" and that there are many who protest against the fact that Canadian cheese makers are more strictly controlled by sanitary authorities than those cheeses imported in much greater quantities from European countries … a question of double standards, it would seem? See article in the Le Devoir newspaper.

But let's finish on an optimistic note: Let's go for "mithridatisation": Let's continue eating raw milk cheeses so that we don't fall sick, the next time we come into contact with pathogenic bacteria … let's allow our children to suck stones, to play in sand pits… have you noticed how sandpits have all but disappeared?

NB: I found out about this subject from the No. 1 edition of Cheese and Wine professional magazine (in French). Just clink on the link and you can receive this excellent publication!

Cuisine, with Entremont cheese

Personally I love cheese just cut from the block – I like nothing better than a lump of cheese with a nice sharp drink (guess which one!)

But I do like also putting cheese into a recipe. And if you read French let me remind you en passant that you'll find some 60 recipes using cheese in my book "Fromages et Cie" on sale in French bookshops (see left hand column) or on line from FNAC.com (they mail abroad).

But one must also recognize that the R and D services of different cheese marketers bend double to propose innovative "cheesy solutions".

Following Boursin Cuisine (that makes sense!), there's Tartare Côté Sud and now Entremont has launched a new service called "Idée Cuisine et Tartine". To become a cordon bleu chef quickly (i.e. if you are hopeless or in a big hurry, so says their press release!) Or how to be sure when one is short of time or ideas… it brings you a source of culinary inspiration that will…

-    amaze your friends immediately

-    assure success in all your recipes

-    Bring a touch of originality to your dishes

-    And from time to time reconcile you with your family (or in-laws)!

The suppression of milk quotas in France will not be reviewed

Things are still fairly up in the air in the milk world… Commercial milk users are asking for a drop in the price of milk, something the milk producers (i.e. the farmers) do not want…

Even though certain cheese companies are still making profits – albeit lower profits as I recently heard on the radio said about the BEL company – small operators are also finding it tough…

Here are a few sites you can visit to find out more (in French):

-the position of the European Union : http://www.agrisalon.com/actualites-agricoles/index.php

-the position of the Lactalis company: http://www.agrisalon.com/06-actu/article-21976.php

-the position of Bongrain: http://www.agrisalon.com/06-actu/article-22023.php

 

Days of Alpage – Megève – 24/26 April

Yes, the Abondance cows are already heading up the slopes for this great event in Mégève (they've left their skis behind!). This is one of the major events in the Alps. The organisers call it a "European pastoral rendez-vous", featuring all the facets of life in the mountains, its farmers, animals, techniques, culture, music, gastronomy.

Info : www.lesjourneesdelalpage.com

Cheese bad for your health? Come on now!...

Brussels is after cheeses again, it seems.

A Breton cheese maker friend of mine has pointed out to me an article in the Télégramme newspaper of March 2nd drawing readers' attention to the fact that cheeses (and other milk products) are no longer able to draw attention on their packaging to their high level of calcium and vitamins. Because we forget that they do not draw attention at the same time to their high content of fatty matter. In other words they are too rich in saturated fatty acids.

To put the claim "rich in calcium" on a piece of emmental weighing only 30g when it hardly contains more than 325 mg of this component (or about 1% of its weight if I'm not mistaken) is something which has always astonished me. Especially as they have forgotten to add that this same chunk of emmental contains:

-    11g of water

-    8.8g of protein (casein)

-    8.6g of lipids

… and therefore 5.2g of saturated fatty acids and 2.7 of unsaturated fatty acids

… and no sugar, or traces, as the lactose get into the whey at the time the curds are removed

And for all that, one cannot print the claim "no sugar" big and bold on a portion of emmental, in the same way that certain brands of lollipops print "0% of fatty matter" on their products (containing 100% sugar!)

So I hope you understand that I'm not against the principle of not allowing this type of selective claim. It's more a question that I would be much more concerned to see cheese classified among products bad for your health.

1) So don't less stigmatize animal fatty matter! Saturated fatty acids in milk do not seem as bad as all that (as borne out by certain studies – like those by the INRA national institute – Transfact – see my note of February 2008)

2) It's difficult to have your dose of calcium if you don't eat milk products (see another note of mine from Feb 2008)

In short we mustn't forget, like for everything, good or bad is all a question of "how much" and being sure to eat everything in reasonable quantities.

And the fact that we are not all built the same way…

Snow...

Yes, it's now ski time for me...and I just feel like these cows... happy to be at least free to run the slopes !

And if you're in the French Alps - especially in Megève - in April, go to the website www.lesjourneesdelalpage.com!

Cheese champions in the 2009 Concours Agricole

The 2009 winners were announced earlier this week… and I was delighted to discover that once again it was the Donge cheese makers who won the gold medal for their Brie de Meaux … the Monts de Joux cooperative for their Mont d’Or …the Berthaut cheese makers for their Epoisses, the Rodez cheese company for their Bleu des Causses … the Occitanes cheese company for their Bleu d’Auvergne and their Cantal … and there were plenty more.
Full results to be found on the CGA site

Special Valentine's day : The fifth essential ingredient in making cheese

I’m sure all of you know there are 4 ingredients in making cheese

• milk
• starter cultures to acidify the milk
• rennet to curdle it  and
• salt to preserve it

 And the 5th ingredient?

• love…

And this love is found right at the start when the milk is produced, as I heard a short while ago on the radio : call a cow by her name and she’ll give you much more milk.

As André Valadier, one-time president of the National Committee for Milk Products of the INAO says: “For a cheese to feel good in its rind, the milk needs to feel good in the teat and so the cow needs to feel good in its head”

So “all you need is love” – as the Beatles told us, all the way through from milk production to the way a cheese is made … and even sold. So let’s all be passionate about it!

Campina joins forces with Frico (Friesland Food)

It’s been official for a good few weeks now. As I have already reported, the European authorities finally gave a green light to the merger of the two major Dutch milk operators, provided they divested themselves of certain activities, but to my knowledge, not those relating to cheese. So a new giant: FrieslandCampina is born.

I wonder how many independent cheese operators are left now in the Netherlands??

For more info in English, go to frieslandcampina.com

Meet “Moolissa”

In France she’s called Meuhlissa (it’s only English cows which have round mouths!) and she’s the mascot of the AOP (=PDO) cheeses of Auvergne and is the star of their 2009 challenge.  

She is a blue and green cow you could discover sliding down the pistes, if you plan to take holidays this February or March on the ski slopes of Mont Dore, Super Besse or Lioran in Central France.

 More info here.

Roquefort : signature of a Franco-Australian agreement on the recognition of inspection and sanitary certification systems

In a press release just before Christmas, it was stated that the French Ministry of Agriculture Michel Barnier had signed an “administrative arrangement” concerning the sanitary condition of Roquefort cheeses exported to Australia, with his Australian counterpart, represented by David Richie, the Australian ambassador in France.

This agreement is to be valid for three years.

The opening of the Australian market to Roquefort, a symbolic ewe's cheese (and not goat, as previously written, mea culpa! Thanks, Frank for your remark!) made with raw milk, took place in September 2005 after years of discussion between the French DGAL (Food Ministry) and the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, its equivalent in Canberra. It has been the result of a particularly intense risk analysis and was possible due to the commitment of the goat milk producers and industry to respecting very high microbiological norms.

On the occasion of the signature of this agreement, Michel Barnier applauded the confidence shown by the Australian authorities in the French control and sanitary certification system and in the quality of the production of Roquefort. This traditional product thus serves to illustrate how a production process can at the same time both guarantee food safety standards and respect a gastronomic heritage, which is recognised all around the world.

So who says that the “Anglo-Saxons” have a hang up about raw milk?  In fact if my memory serves me right, listeria has never been found in a Roquefort cheese, understandable when one thinks of its maturing time and its microbiological characteristics (but then this subject is beyond my competence!)

“Embassies of the Comté region”

Yes they now exist. On the occasion of their 50^th anniversary, the Comté AOC has decided to open its own “embassies” of good taste for its cheeses.

By carefully choosing its first three Parisian locations:

- Eric LEFEBVRE, Fromagerie de Paris at 229 rue de Charenton in the 12^th arrondissement: an excellent professional (an MOF – Maître Ouvrier de France) who really knows the Comté region backwards. Eric took part for a number of years in the meetings of the CIGC - the professional group for the promotion of the Comté area - as well as sitting on numerous tasting juries for this great cheese.

- Laurent DUBOIS, at 47ter boulevard St Germain and 2 rue de Lourmel, another MOF and another great name in the French dairy business.

They both have committed themselves to making their 3 cheese outlets “ like genuine little enclaves of the Jura mountains with round the year activities, motivated by the desire to share with their customers all the strong values of the Comté region”.

Passions are heating up… will milk turn sour?

In France’s milk world everybody is aware of the difficulty of agreeing on the purchase price of milk – a subject already dealt with here a couple of months ago. Back in May, the DGCCRF (the Government anti-fraud unit) declared that the principle of setting quarterly recommended milk prices as had been in operation since 1997 was unlawful price-fixing. And they therefore requested each producer to fix his own price. This caused problems this summer in Brittany.

To overcome the stalemate, the authorities allowed those concerned to negotiate again at a regional level to give time to find a procedure acceptable to all (by April 2009 at the latest).

Well the situation has evolved in a couple of weeks.

Nobody is talking nowadays about the increase in milk prices around the world!

Because this rise in the price of “white gold” had been linked to the ongoing economic climate rather than any structural issues in the market, and was influenced by bad climatic conditions (in particular in the Pacific), as well as by the rise of consumption in China and India. The “melamine” milk scandal in China seems to really have put the brakes on this development… and the weather has been good this year. So the world prices for butter and powdered milk are at present on the way down.

As for the farmers, they complain about the rise in their production costs (fuel, animal feeds, phytosanitary products…) and wish to continue to increase their selling price of milk. But the price of a barrel of oil has slumped spectacularly in recent weeks and the weather has also been very favourable for cereals, leading to a distinct increase in the level of the harvest and yet these harvests were undertaken when oil was at its highest price! (By the way, let’s just give a thought also to those who heat their properties with oil and who filled their tanks in the summer – at a time when prices have been traditionally more favourable – whereas this year it would have been better to wait until November…)

So it’s not a simple state of affairs.

And to add insult to injury, there is further bad news - for example the changes in the PDO system and the setting up of new monitoring organisations – and lingering problems in the pricing policy for meat : in some cases calves, needed so that cows can produce milk, a point worth making – are fetching hardly 10 to 15 euros each!!

I did say to you that things would heat up this autumn… now I foresee a big bonfire burning for the year end festivities.

Some thoughts about cheese

I was chatting the other day with a cheese merchant in his shop and we were mentioning the number of customers, the type of clientele and the future of the profession.
Small talk, you might say! No, calling a spade a spade in fact: adverse costs, always going up (rents, salaries), together with rising purchase prices caused by the increasing expense of milk production on the farm, and the ever more severe constraints in quality control and hygiene requirements … leading to some consumer prices looking like those of luxury products.

Just one example? How about a raw milk farmhouse Munster costing € 36 a kilo – I’ve never seen that before… Supermarkets hardly seem any better, their prices have shot up these past few months. Sometimes compensated in certain stores by the introduction on to their shelves of significantly less mature cheeses, to enable them to make special offers. Well it’s true.
 We don’t these days eat cheese as a basic foodstuff like in olden times. We get our share of proteins and lipids from other foods, such as meat. And mothers hardly ever these days offer cheese as a “fill up” after a light meal, as they did just after the Second World War. But to go from there to only being able to afford cheese on special occasions, like luxury products… is a step too far. Especially these days when consumer confidence is shaky and the household budget is tightening…
The added value of a professional cheese merchant is his profound knowledge of all he sells. And his ability to select top quality and surprising cheeses, to lavish care over them by maturing them precisely, making a showcase out of his store with additional services (sampling and the preparation of buffets), by his welcome … and with an extremely well-trained team to take over when he is not in the shop. In brief, to be at the same time manager, buyer, retailer, trained “maturer”, stock controller, businessman, teacher … I won’t go on! A “poly-magician” of sorts, a gift not found in everybody. Hats off then to all those who have trained as “Maître Ouvrier du Fromage” and thereby gained this title: it’s an investment in time and money to recognise and perfect their “savoir faire”. So why is the profession of cheese merchant – like so many trades to do with food – so poorly regarded by young people? How to promote this vocation? How to reconcile today’s leisure society with that of the service industry?
There’s often the first problem – the need to be in the shop when others are no longer at the office – Saturdays and Sundays included. Not very compatible with a “normal” social life … how would you like to go clubbing with friends on a Saturday night and be at work (and on form) at 7.30 on a Sunday morning?
But now I’m going on a bit, I know …

SIAL 2008 – a harvest of innovations

The SIAL Global Food Market PlaceThe which took place in Paris from 19 – 23 October really has been concentrating more and more on innovation. But how does innovation affect the world of cheese?

 

-       by adding ingredients : as for example the duet of Brie and mirabelles from the Fromageries de Blâmont (Meurthe et Moselle) which I have already talked about in an earlier note and which I have at last sampled. The mixture of sweet and savoury is astonishing.

 

-       or again, one of the prize winners in terms of innovation: fromage frais with apricots, salmon, dried tomatoes under the brand name O’tapas

 

-       or a third novelty, a small tome cheese with truffles (Val d’Arve from Switzerland)

 

-       in more practical packaging : like this little platter of cheese with a transparent lid from Visiopac - la ferme d’Alexandre, the cover and the base fit together in a novel way – easy opening and with the possibility of putting it back into a mini-cloche for keeping the cheeses in the fridge.

 

-       Or like this new P’tit Louis X Press – a cream cheese which children can squeeze out from its solid packaging.

 

-       Or how about a surprising recipe in a very practical pack? Like these cheeses for cooking (mini fondues) you can put directly into the oven, sold in 3s with 3 different recipes!

 

-      

There are some steady favourites… here are what some Italians are up to…

 

-       And sometimes you need to raise your eyes up to the ceiling to rediscover some well-known brands.

 

-       And as we go on, let’s welcome an initiative from a recently established wine production area… the local wines from the Atlantic area, putting together wines and cheeses – major classic cheeses – mostly soft (Reblochon, Pont l’Evêque, Camembert) and non tannic wines. And together with various types of butter. Interesting, don’t you think?

 

Tyrosemiphilia … or collecting cheese labels!

One of my readers has reproached me gently for never talking about cheese label collectors and their website letyrosemiophile.com. If you’ve followed my notes here, you’ll be aware of its derivation:

Tyro: cheese in Greek

Semion: a mark, a sign or by extension, an image

Phile: a lover

 

I’ve not talked much about this activity as it’s not one of my passions, I do admit. I’d rather collect cows (or sheep or goats) and knives. But as a passionate collector, I’ve the highest respect for other peoples’ passions! So don’t count on me to swap labels as I’ve none at home… I’ve left them behind in different cheese makers’ premises when I was involved with them through the length of my professional life.

 

But cheese labels are always interesting to look at. They are a reflection of a particular point in time or region or manufacturer… I particularly like those of the “hungry monk” variety which always show a portly man of God scoffing his cheese.

 

However, still in the monastic category, I strongly go for the one shown here – more modern (it’s only 3 years old) and more restrained.

 

If you’d like to chat with such collectors, it’s best to go to some of the cheese festivals which take place across France. It’s rare not to find a stand full of amateurs or a historical display of labels from a particular make on show.

 

Happy hunting!