South Australian-made raw milk cheese could join the lucrative luxury food market overseas and in Australia through funding from the state government's advanced foods manufacturing grants program.
A $68,000 grant will support four of the state’s prominent cheesemakers – Barossa Valley Cheese Company, Section28 Artisan Cheeses, Hindmarsh Valley Dairy and Woodside Cheese Wrights – to collaborate with DairySafe SA and the University of Tasmania to establish protocols and validation for category-two raw milk cheese making.
“The goal is to enable the production of high-end and unique South Australian cheeses to target the luxury food market overseas and interstate, creating new market opportunities and scalable food safety mechanisms,” Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development Tim Whetstone said.
“This project would see strong collaboration across some of the state’s most highly skilled and passionate cheesemakers.
“It is a pleasure to assist the South Australian Raw Milk Cheese Collective access the expertise they need to put other exceptional SA-made products on shelves around the country.
“The liberal government is committed to supporting our food producers across SA and backing the regions to grow our economy and create jobs.”
Barossa Valley Cheese Company managing director Victoria McClurg said the grant would assist the collective, which has more than 50 years of cheese-making experience between them, to access new markets.
“We hope to give SA the leading edge on cheese-making by working with DairySafe SA towards unified standards and verification protocols for raw milk cheese production,” Ms McClurg said.
The AFM grant funding will assist the newly created SA Raw Milk Cheese Collective achieve its innovation objectives, that include creating a consistent approval regime across industry for the production of raw milk cheeses.
