Last Friday, 240 experts from 40 countries traveled to Viseu in northern Portugal for the world Ost Prices. During the day, the jury tasted a raw sheep’s cheese with washed rind from the host country, the Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado, which was chosen as the best.
But as the afternoon progressed, the British contingent noticed something strange: holes in several tables. As it turned out, the British cheeses had failed to clear customs and had no chance of competing with the world’s best.
Sometimes some countries’ cheeses don’t make the cut, said John Farrand, director of the Guild of Fine Essenwho carries out the event. But Farrand added that the guild is granted a special license to import cheese every year and British cheesemakers have met all the conditions.
Evaluation of cheese. Foto: Paulo Fernandes/Guild of Fine Food
However, on Friday morning it turned out that the cheeses had not been cleared away. “The reasons are unclear to me, even on Friday we were still struggling to get clarity and clear instructions about what was wrong, but we were unsuccessful,” Farrand said. observer yesterday. Up to 252 types of cheese from 67 manufacturers may have been affected.
Farrand pointed out that cheeses from countries that are “typically much more difficult to import for assessment,” such as South Africa, Japan and several South American countries, are competitive. Although the exact reason is still unknown, leaving the EU has made things more difficult, said Farrand. “Before Brexitthat wouldn’t have been a thing. That’s a fact.”
Judge James Grant, co-founder of the Real Cheese Project, said: “It is truly devastating. The UK is experiencing an incredible transformation when it comes to cheese. There’s an incredible amount of hard work from these cheesemakers who are bringing handmade cheese back to the menu. It’s really, really sad.”
Grant added that since the UK left the EU, importing and exporting cheese has “become more difficult due to increased bureaucracy and red tape”. This view is shared by Jane Quicke of Quicke’s Cheddar in Devon. Quicke spoke from Viseu, told observer that we have withheld, rejected and incorrectly imposed tariffs on cheese countless times since leaving the EU. Our cheese has to travel from Devon to Preston to Holland, rather than going straight to the end customer as it used to.
Quicke added that she was “so sad that many English cheeses, including ours, have not been able to compete with our international counterparts, but I’m not entirely surprised.”
For Grant, it wasn’t just that British cheeses couldn’t win medals – one or two often made it into the top 10, and a British cheese called Cornish Kern last won in 2017. But each of the 4,786 cheeses assessed receives feedback and gives Giving manufacturers the chance to learn and improve their product.
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“Hundreds of British cheesemakers have worked so hard and are so proud of what they do.” Grant added that the World Cheese Awards can “change people’s lives” and predicted that the Portuguese winner’s life “will change “Would change night”. For cheesemakers, “it was a hammer blow not just to British cheese but to cheese as a whole to receive such a blow within hours of the opening of the biggest cheese competition.”
Sam Wilkin, part of the team behind Yarlington and Rollright, was “very disappointed” that they couldn’t keep up. “We fancied our chances,” admitted Wilkin. “What it really shows is that after Brexit it is very difficult to export cheese. The guild will have done everything in their power to make this happen, they will have dotted the ice and crossed the T’s, but when someone on the border decides something isn’t quite right or they misinterpret a piece of paper, it breaks everything together.
“We are really disappointed not to be able to compete, but it does raise the bigger question of what type of injury this is.” Export control with our closest trading partner, who does that to our industry?”
