Stilton’s whiff of status brings surge in global demand
CHEESE exports are booming thanks to a growing demand for traditional British varieties in the US and Japan.
Producers are rapidly expanding to cope with the increased demand as cheeses such as Stilton and red Leicester are increasingly being regarded as a status symbol abroad.
Cheese producers now send around a third of their product abroad, with January seeing a 23 per cent increase in exports compared with January 2017, data from Dairy UK shows.
A £25 million expansion is under way at one historic dairy in Leicestershire to meet surging overseas demand.
Long Clawson Dairy makes Stilton and other cheeses, and sends around 20 per cent of its output to 40 countries, including the US, Canada, China and Australia.
Michael Oakes, the NFU’S dairy board chairman, said: “There is a growing trend for cheeseboards within fine dining experiences, particularly in the US and Japan. A cheese course is typically enjoyed with wine and is very much a luxury experience involving high-quality, strong-tasting cheeses. Diners very much want to see the traditional cheese names like Stilton and red Leicester, and they want to see the Union Jack and red tractor logos.
“It’s a similar effect as Belgian or Swiss chocolate over here, it has that air of luxury, it is a status symbol.”