Altay cheese can compete with French one

Cheese producers from Altay, a region in Siberia, dream of no less than conquering the world. This September they open a “Holiday of Cheese” so that everyone can see how diverse and tasty their production is.    

Cheese from Altay is popular not only all over Russia – it is known far abroad and even has been put into the Guinness Book of Records. It is highly appreciated in France – and the French are believed to be the world’s best cheese connoisseurs. When in May 2009 the Altay region was an honorary guest at the annual International fair in Besançon, France, among other things it presented its cheese as well. Tatyana Zelenina from the Altay region’s administration says : «We offered our cheese for everyone to taste, and Frenchmen said that they saw no difference between our cheese and theirs. They also liked the fact that for a cheese of such quality, it is rather cheap.”    

Last September, French cheese producers came to Altay with a return visit. They made their famous Comté cheese in public and let anyone taste it. And they took home some samples of the Altay cheese.

Tatyana Zelenina says: “Madame Perrin, the owner of a cheese factory in the Franche-Comté region, whose whole family is in the cheese business, took some samples of our cheese home, and all her sons and daughters-in-law said to her: “And you are still going to teach them something? They make excellent cheese!” 

The Altay region is probably the largest cheese producer in Russia – for example, last year they produced 70 thousand tons of cheese, including elite brands that are made from milk of the highest quality. To get such milk, cows are pastured on special kinds of grass.   

“We make more cheese than we can eat,” says Tatyana Zelenina. “We eat only about 25% of it, and we sell the rest to other regions of Russia or abroad. We think it’s a significant contribution into Russia’s economy.”   

The “Cheese holiday” in Altay that has been held for several years already, welcomes guests from all over the world. At the last year’s festival, Altay masters made a cheese of about 700 kilos and a cheese plait over 16 meters long – both entered the Guinness book of records. The fantasy of cheese masters seems to be inexhaustible – they even made a map of the Altay region from cheese. This year they plan to make cartoon characters from cheese – that must be something truly worth seeing!