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