Cheese champ warns of major UK shortage
ROLAND GENT AND STEPHEN TOPPING
AN award-winning cheesemaker has fired a warning over a shortage of one of the country’s most beloved treats.
Demand for the Cheshire Cheese Company’s products soared in 2021, with managing director Simon Spurrell claiming the country went ‘cheese mad’ after lockdown.
But he warns that soaring costs are contributing towards a major cheese shortage for the country. It comes as businesses like the Macclesfield-based Cheshire Cheese Company are also having to adapt to the changes brought about by Brexit - with Simon reporting a loss of £250,000 as a direct result,s.
With a shortage of cheese in the aftermath of coronavirus, Simon warns that prices rises will affect consumers.
He said: “Everybody went cheese mad in 2021.
“We had a big growth but that has had a knock on effect.
“The UK is now just beginning to figure there’s actually a massive shortage of cheese in the UK.
“In 2020 nobody was thinking of pre-ordering cheese that has to be matured for two to three years. Then consequently big orders were not put in, nobody was going to commit beyond 2021.
“Then 2021 came and all the surplus was used up. So we’re presented in 2022 with a very, very large shortage of mature cheeses.
“We’ve already seen 40 per cent increase in the cost of milk. The cost of farming is up, red diesel is more expensive. You’re looking at animal feed at 60 per cent up, the general cost of farming has meant that milk prices have to go up.
“So cheese prices are going up. Combine that with the general shortages. Nobody wants to spend the effort and cost to mature cheese.”
The Cheshire Cheese Company recently romped home with five medals, including a gold, at the International Cheese and Dairy awards. But Simon says his business was hit overnight following the
UK’s departure from the EU, insisting it is now impossible the company’s cheeses on a business to consumer basis online to EU customers.
He added: “In 2020, I told the government they had not come up with an agreement not in any shape or form. There was no allowance for the consumers of these countries to actually buy cheese from the United Kingdom any longer.
“You can’t buy cheese in the EU without a health certificate. The health certificates are £180 and have to be signed off by a Veterinary surgeon.
“That’s regardless if it’s one block of cheese or one tonne. It takes about four hours to complete the paperwork for the health certificate.
“Our consumer market was destroyed overnight as we used to sell to Italy, France and Germany in particular. That went completely, with 60 parcels returned in January of the first week.
“The Government could not tell us why parcels were returned. DHL/DPD couriers have no idea because they said it must be teething problems.
“I appeared many times on German national TV and was told by several politicians that Boris Johnson referred to me as ‘That Bloody Cheese Man.’
“If nothing else in life, I’ve achieved annoying him - so I am very proud of that one.
“We sell to 650 shops across the United Kingdom.
“We used to sell across Europe to a lot of countries but Brexit has stolen that from us, we used to sell to nine countries.
“Post-Brexit we now sell to six countries including Canada, which is now our biggest export market.
“We lost the wholesale markets over there shortly afterward, because we’re dealing with local authorities in the EU member states, who now say we are too expensive and too difficult to deal with.
“So we lost that quarter of a million pounds of business in the first year from that.”
“Nobody wants to spend the effort and cost to mature cheese.”