Fine Food Digest Volum 16 Issue 9 | Page 25

cheesewire SCA sees milk crisis driving more into cheese-making Interview With low milk prices continuing to take a toll, the Specialist Cheesemakers Association is seeing membership rise as farms search for ways to add value. PATRICK McGUIGAN spoke to SCA secretary Terry Jones. T he joke at this year’s Specialist Cheesemakers Association visit to Fen Farm Dairy was that if the evening bonfire spread to the dinner marquee cheddar maker George Keen would be rubbing his hands. That’s because Keen was about the only artisan cheese-maker in Britain who couldn’t make it to the event. One stray spark would have wiped out his entire competition. The fact that so many of the SCA’s 370-strong membership went to the weekend of tours, tastings and networking, hosted by the makers of Baron Bigod cheese in Suffolk, shows just how important and popular the organisation is among the cheese fraternity. The event was also notable for the announcement of the SCA’s much coveted James Aldridge Memorial Trophy, which recognises the best raw milk cheese in the country, as chosen by other cheesemakers. This year’s winner was Appleby’s Cheshire, while bursaries were also awarded to several up-and-coming makers. Set up in 1989 in response to a threat from the Minister of Agriculture to ban the sale of unpasteurised cheese, the SCA is made up of producers, retailers and wholesalers, and counts Prince Charles as its patron. It has been an integral part of the great British cheese revival since startup, providing the industry with a single voice and a forum for sharing knowledge. Headquartered in the same Clerkenwell office as the mighty Provision Trade Federation (PTF) – the body representing most of the UK’s major meat and dairy suppliers – the SCA’s secretary is Terry Jones, who combines the job with his position as PTF director-general. Appointed a year ago, Jones previously worked at the NFU and most recently as the communications director at the Food and Drink Federation. Just as importantly, he has milk in his veins, hailing from dairy farming stock in Monmouthshire, while his wife is a partner in a Cheshire dairy farm. Ironically, it is rock bottom milk prices that have helped swell the SCA’s numbers from 160 cheesemakers two years ago to 180 today. Of those, most are tiny companies – around 130 make less than a tonne of cheese a week. “Our senior members are getting calls all the time from dairy farmers who’re disillusioned with commodity pricing,” says Jones. “There are some very successful businesses in the SCA who, three or four years ago, got fed up with milk prices and decided to do something about it by producing cheese. To quote one, ‘We were always being told it was jam tomorrow.’” At the same time, growing interest from the public in local a major contract. While he won’t comment on individual cases, Jones says the loss of larger manufacturers does have an impact on specialist cheese-makers too. “Overall it’s bad news. Those are the places where entrepreneurs cut their teeth, where cheese-makers learn their trade before they go off to start their own businesses. Any loss of infrastructure in UK dairy is a retrograde step.” The state of the country’s ‘dairy infrastructure’ isn’t really a pressing issue for most SCA members. They Our senior members are getting ❛calls all the time from dairy farmers who’re disillusioned with commodity pricing ❜ Terry Jones, secretary of the SCA and director-general of the PTF food and the rise of farm shops and farmers’ markets make artisan cheese a tempting sector for start-ups. Most SCA members are insulated from the price pre