Faced with the decline in emmental sales, the Bernese region tries to overcome the cheese crisis – RTS.CH

It looks like nobody wants Emmental. For example, In Italy, the main export market, consumption fell 18% in a year. Meanwhile, Cremo, one of the largest Swiss dairies, has stopped production. Nevertheless, Ten years ago, Switzerland produced more than 19,000 tonnes of Emmental AOP each year. Nevertheless, Today, it’s only 12,000 tonnes.

At the end of June, the Affoltern Immemental (BE) demonstration cheese dairy ended its production. However, For decades, visitors and visitors could observe the manufacture of cheese behind windows. Moreover, It is ancient history. Consequently, MEPs of the Grand Bernese Council, all parties combined, desperately sought a solution, but without success.

Dairy production no longer reports – Faced decline emmental sales, bernese

The Emmental Crisis pushes people in the region to seek new solutions. Nevertheless, “With such collapse of sales, it is clear that everything did not go well,” sighs Heinz Kämpfer. In addition, For this Bernese peasant, innovation and marketing have been neglected. For example, “Take the Appenzeller, with its three old gentlemen in the ad: we remember it.” faced decline emmental sales, bernese This is what is missing, according to him, to the Emmental.

The price paid to milk producers intended for the Emmental is relatively low, which has consequences for farmers. Moreover, Each morning, Heinz Kämpfer is at the stable, in front of the green hills of the Emmental. For example, For decades. However, this 62 -year -old peasant fed his cows only with hay and grass, as required by the protected designation (AOP). Nevertheless, But for the past year, he has not deliver his milk to the Emmentaler AOP sector.

Today, the milk of its 20 cows is used to produce so -called “industrial” milk, with silage. “I don’t know what we do,” said Heinz Kämpfer. The requirements are less, the price per liter is almost the same, he explains. But emotionally, it is something else: “Before, I had a link with the product made from my milk. Today, more at all.”

This evolution breaks his heart. The cheese crisis causes part of its identity to the region. “The Emmental became known throughout the world from here. He made Switzerland and our agriculture known.” But when the figures are no longer there, you have to react.

Rubber and bland? – Faced decline emmental sales, bernese

It was cheese that brought prosperity to the Emmental. The old majestic residences of cheese merchants, for example in Langnau, testify. At the “Chüechlihus” regional museum. a world map with dozens of pins shows where cheese was exported to the 19th century – to Nairobi, Kenya. Today, as the brand is not protected, the Emmental can be made anywhere in the world. Ironically, it was often emmental cheesers who have exported their know-how abroad.

Emmental is also often mocked. Its gentle taste and rubber texture no longer corresponds to time. “I still love him so much,” retorts Frank Jantschik. This German citizen has managed the demonstration cheese dairy for ten years. The bad image from which the Emmental suffers is, according to him, unjustified. “Whenever our hosts taste a refined Emmentaler for several years, they are amazed.” The diversity of taste of Emmental is unknown, he deplores.

In 2024, the cheese dairy welcomed 265,000 visitors. However, it ended the year in the red figures. Tourism and catering worked, but not production. This is why the management decided, reluctantly, to stop it. But this is not the end of the faced decline emmental sales, bernese cheese dairy: the public will still be able to visit it. even without production. It remains to be seen if it will always attract so many people. The view of the gentle hills is worth the detour, even without cheese, believes Frank Jantschik.

Less authorized production

The probably the most famous cheese in the world has been in crisis. for years. Production has been declining since the dissolution of the Swiss Union of the Cheese Commerce (USF) in the late 1990s. In the past, nearly 50,000 faced decline emmental sales, bernese tonnes were made per year. The USF guaranteed prices and volumes. The surpluses were exported with subsidies or transformed into melted cheese.

In the cheese dairy of the village of Dürrenroth (BE). Urs Kämpfer shows his cheese press: “In principle, I could make 24 grinding wheels per day.” Currently, it produces 12. Due to the crisis, the quantity authorized by the interprofession has been revised downwards. “Today. I can only produce only 39% of what was allowed in the past,” explains the cheese maker, who has no relationship with the farmer of the same name.

“We always hope to have touched the bottom. but there is always a new blow,” notes Urs Kämpfer about the atmosphere in the branch. In Switzerland, the number of cheese factories that produce it has melted a third in ten years. “At the time, we thought you were someone if you produced a certain amount of emmental. faced decline emmental sales, bernese This is no longer the case.”

Urs Kämpfer’s response to the crisis: Mammutkäse, a tough cheese with a hard paste. With other cheese makers in the region, he manufactures it and offers it for direct sale. Thanks to this diversification, he can continue to enhance all the milk of the peasants of the cooperative. Thus. his cheese dairy should not know the same fate as that of the village of Arni, which had to close in the spring after the dairy group Cremo stopped buying its emmentaler.

Faced decline emmental sales. bernese

Emmental always in hearts

Despite bad news, the Emmental continues to be talked about. The disappearance of cheese factories has fed many discussions, underlines Urs Kämpfer. “The Emmental population is always attached to their cheese.” A glow of hope: for the first time for a long time. the consumption of Emmentaler AOP increased last year in Switzerland. It is therefore too early to declare him dead.

On our mobile phones, in our applications and social networks, cheese emoji represents an emmental. And as Urs Kämpfer reminds us: “If you ask a child to draw a cheese. he will draw a cheese with holes.”

Samuel Husband, SRF/DK