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Support grows for Yorkshire cheese battle
Euro-MPs back our campaign, along with farmers for whom the Wensleydale Creamery is a lifeline. Lizzie Murphy reports. SUPPORT for the campaign to protect real Wensleydale cheese was growing last night as the region's Euro MPs pledged their backing.
Diana Wallis and Edward McMillan-Scott, Euro-MPs for Yorkshire and the Humber, praised the Yorkshire Post Uniquely Yorkshire campaign, which aims to put pressure on the European Union to safeguard real Wensleydale Cheese from imitations.
We revealed yesterday that Wensleydale Dairy Products, based in the market town of Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales, is applying to the EU for Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status.
The move would prevent manufacturers outside Wensleydale from producing a cheese with the same name. If granted, cheese made in the area would be called Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese.
Mr McMillan-Scott (Conservative), vice-president of the European Parliament, said: "I think it is entirely right that this protection should be applied because it is an historic cheese of outstanding character and quality.
"I think that if other great European cheeses enjoy worldwide protection Wensleydale should be in the front row and so far it has not been.
"The line up of British cheeses is incomplete without Wensleydale.
"Yorkshire producers should look very seriously at opportunities offered by this status. It may look rather bureaucratic, but it not only offers European protection but also worldwide protection."
Mrs Wallis (Liberal Democrat) said more Yorkshire companies should consider applying for PDOs.
"It is really important to see some Yorkshire companies going for protected designation," she said. "There aren't enough doing it and I'm glad to see Wensleydale is applying.
"It is a really good product and it is very locally based. The name is known and it is a quality product – it is everything that it should be.
"We are becoming more and more concerned about where the food we eat comes from and how it is produced. This is a scheme that answers both these questions."
Richmond Tory MP William Hague has also pledged his support for the campaign.
Protected status aims to promote and protect food products in the EU and is used to describe foods which are produced, processed and prepared in a given geographical area using traditional methods.
The move protects consumers from poor-quality imitations and secures the future prosperity of products as well as hundreds of people's livelihoods.
Only 29 British products are currently protected by the EU, whereas other European countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy, have hundreds.
Only Swaledale Cheese and Swaledale Ewe's Cheese are in Yorkshire.
Wensleydale Creamery has been handcrafting the traditional hard cheese for more than 100 years to a time-honoured recipe that can be traced back to Cistercian monks.
It is made with cows milk from 36 dairy farms near Hawes. The cows graze in sweet limestone meadows rich in herbs, which gives the cheese its special flavour.
The creamery is the main producer, but there are also a handful of smaller operations in the area.
CASE STUDY 1
Creamery helped save family farm
FARMER Adrian Harrison was one of the first to start supplying milk to Wensleydale Creamery more than 10 years ago.
Before that, all farmers sold their milk to the local Milk Marketing Board, which distributed it. But when the boards were abolished in 1994, farmers had to look for other buyers.
Mr Harrison, 35, who runs a farm in Thornton Rust, six miles from Hawes, said: "It was fortunate there was a creamery to take our milk.
"If the creamery wasn't here, a lot of small family-run farms would not be in milk production."
Mr Harrison and his wife Gill have two children, Annabel, aged six and James, aged four. He said the application for protected status for Real Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese was a good idea because it would re-affirm the authenticity of the product.
The farm has 130 cows milked by Mr Harrison, his father Maurice and brother, Chris. They produce 800,000 litres of milk a year for the creamery.
CASE STUDY 2
Milk to the rescue after foot-and-mouth
WENSLEYDALE farmer William Lambert owes his livelihood to the success of the creamery at Hawes.
His 200-acre farm lies just two miles away and for the last 10 years he has supplied the firm with milks.
"Without the market provided by the creamery, we simply wouldn't be here," said Mr Lambert, who firmly believes that the economics of the modern dairy industry would have long-since rendered Wensleydale too remote to be on the regular milk tanker round.
Since his farm fell victim to foot-and-mouth disease in 2001, Mr Lambert has built his business back up and now has 80 cows and a new state-of-the-art milking parlour to supply the creamery with more than half a million litres of milk a year – 1,500 litres a day.
Mr Lambert, who is also chairman of the local milk producer group, said he does whatever he can to help ensure the success of the creamery, including showing its potential buyers and suppliers round his farm.
He added: "At the end of the day, if they are doing well, then next down the line is me and we all want to make a bit."
The sharp rise in business for the award-winning Wensleydale Creamery has meant growing demand for milk from the 36 dairy farm suppliers operating within a 10-mile radius of the cheese producer.
Mr Lambert already works 15-hour days, starting at 5.30am, and is planning to increase production further.
Mr Lambert, whose family have been farming in Wensleydale for 500 years, said: ""The main reason why dairy farmers like ourselves in the area have survived is down to the creamery."
He said the local farmers were firmly behind the campaign to gain protection for cheese made in Wensleydale: "I think it is long overdue. Anyone who is a real connoisseur of cheese appreciates the beautiful taste of Wensleydale."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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