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| A selection of Cahill's cheese |
Cahill’s Farm Cheese from Newcastle West, County Limerick, are one of the Irish cheesemakers being hosted by Bord Bia at Salon du Fromage, the leading cheese trade fair.
Helen Cahill is looking forward to the Paris event: “Participation in Salon du Fromage affords us the opportunity to showcase our quality Irish cheeses to international buyers. We have been supplying the renowned Rungis food market, outside Paris, with our Porter and Whiskey cheeses for sometime. We are really looking forward to meeting existing customers, as well as hoping to make new connections during the course of the show.”
It is a first for Bord Bia who will host fourteen Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers. Bord Bia will showcase one of the only two non-French national pavilions at the show by exhibiting up to forty artisan cheeses from the 23rd to the 26th February. The well-established Salon du Fromage, will be held alongside the Salon de l’Agriculture, the international agricultural show, where more than 170 exhibitors and over 6,000 visitors are expected to attend.
The Irish Farmhouse Cheese sector is a contributor to the dairy industry’s high quality and sustainable reputation, with over 50 farmhouse cheese makers producing in excess of 150 types of cheese. The total Irish artisan cheese sector is currently valued at more than €12 million per annum at farm gate level since growing from a small base in the 1970’s. Exports have become a focus for the sector in recent years due to the upcoming abolition of milk quotas in 2015 which is expected to increase milk supply by up to 50% in Ireland by 2020 and the number of dairy farms adding value on farm in the form of Irish Farmhouse Cheese.
According to Bord Bia’s French Market Manager, Noreen Lanigan, “The recent growth in exports of Irish artisan cheese to approximately €4.5 million is an invaluable endorsement of the quality of Irish artisan cheese internationally. Europe, and of course France, the acclaimed epicenter for cheese, have become a priority for Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers in their export targets.”
She added, “In Ireland, as each cheese is unique to each producer, this allows for innovation and creativity while respecting the values of traditional cheese making. This differs greatly to cheese available on the Continent where they are made by many farms and dairies under strict guidelines to ensure consistent standards such as Camembert. Our European counterparts see it as unique and unusual that each cheese is the result of the passion and dedication of one farm and family.”
List of Participating Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers:
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