In recent months, cottage cheese and white cheese have become boutique items. They arrive at retail chains in meager quantities, and fortunate customers who manage to find them on the shelf immediately put them into their shopping carts, preferably as many as possible, because tomorrow there will be none left. Manufacturers claim the shortage stems from fewer workdays during the holidays, some of which occurred consecutively and shut down production lines. However, according to their promises, the supply gap was supposed to close at least a week ago, and in the meantime, the situation has not really improved.
The high demand and empty shelves led Euro Cheese to take action, importing cottage cheese from abroad for the first time in the history of the Israeli food market. And not just from anywhere abroad, but from Switzerland, the land of cows grazing in pastures.
Swiss cottage cheese arrives in Israel amid local shortage
Euro Cheese was established in 2010 and specializes in the import, marketing, and distribution of cheeses and dairy products from around the world. It supplies its products to retail chains, delicatessens, restaurants, hotels, and specialty shops. Among the brands it markets are Waldehuysen Gouda, Old Amsterdam, and Yantar cheese. Last June, Sugat acquired controlling interest in Euro Cheese and its sister company, Eurostandard, in a deal valued at approximately NIS 140 million.
"Against the backdrop of the severe cottage cheese shortage, when the supplier offered us this product, we jumped on the idea," says Guillaume Shenez, professional manager at Euro Cheese. "We also work with the Arab sector, where it is selling excellently.
"Usually, cottage cheese has an expiration date of about two weeks, but that is too short a period to import it because it could spoil. The Swiss company's product has a three-month expiration date, which makes it worthwhile to import to Israel. Since the product is not kosher, we are currently selling it at Tiv Taam, Keshet Teamim, and non-kosher delicatessens and grocery stores. If we see there is demand for it, we may in the future kosher production lines and import kosher cottage cheese here."
And how much does it cost? It turns out that the price gap between local cottage cheese and the one imported from Switzerland is not particularly large. While the price of an Israeli tub ranges from NIS 6.50 to NIS 7.90, the imported version is sold for NIS 8 to NIS 9, with the significant advantage of a much longer shelf life.
One can only hope that the import from Switzerland will spur local dairy manufacturers to step on the gas, returning the popular cheeses to the shelves in sufficient quantities.