[getsmart-l] "We deplore that the big industrial players are trying to pass off some of their cheeses as artisanal, "

[John O'Gorman]

Big Business' attempt to look small, local and sustainable and to con us all!!??

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080716.RSAPUTO15/TPStory/?query=cheese
FOOD: QUEBEC'S BIG CHEESE TRIES TO LOOK SMALL

Fromage fracas causes stink
BERTRAND MAROTTE July 16, 2008 Globe and Mail

MONTREAL -- Call it the battle over bucolic chic.

For the dozens of small-scale, craft cheese makers who have emerged in Quebec over the past 20 years, it's a point of pride - shot through with a tang of culturo-gastronomic nationalism - that their array of regional cheeses routinely take top prizes at international competitions and occasionally even beat out the grand old stinkers from France in blind taste tests.

Ciel de Charlevoix, Chèvre Noir, Pied-de-Vent: The evocative names have made their mark, as the Slow Food movement and increased consumer awareness about healthy eating fuelled an explosion in the popularity of artisanal cheese and other natural comestibles.

But now, there are signs of growing tension in the goat, cow and sheep country of Quebec's terroir.

Independent Quebec cheese makers are increasingly up in arms over what they say is unfair competition from the big industrial players posing as artisanal producers and insolently wedging themselves into their small-scale turf. Now, there are calls for a more stringent classification system - based on the French "appellation d'origine controllée" protocol for wines and cheeses - so that cheese aficionados know exactly what they're getting.

"We deplore that the big industrial players are trying to pass off some of their cheeses as artisanal," says Nancy Portelance, the head of Plaisirs Gourmets, distributor for 18 artisanal Quebec cheese makers.

"This is a direct threat to us. They're using marketing tactics to reap the benefits from what we built up, from what makes us special."

The biggest offender, some claim, is Saputo Inc., the Montreal-based dairy giant built on sales of that ubiquitous pizza topping: mozzarella.

Saputo, which had revenue of $5-billion for fiscal 2008, launched its foray into specialty and fine cheese eight years ago and has scooped up a few small Quebec fine cheese makers since then.

Most notably, Saputo bought Groupe Fromage Côté of Warwick, in the Eastern Townships.

Founded in Montreal in the mid-fifties by Lino Saputo and his Italian immigrant parents - his father was a master Sicilian cheese maker - as a humble producer of mozzarella, Saputo is out to expand sales of higher-margin craft cheeses as part of a broader strategy to secure new markets and niches to offset slower growth in its main business of commodity cheeses such as mozzarella.

"The acquisition of Fromage Côté in April, 2005, has been an essential step in forging our presence in the Canadian specialty cheese market and in catering to consumers' ever growing appetite for these products," explains Saputo spokeswoman Karine Vachon.

What has particularly rankled the small fromageries is Saputo's Alexis de Portneuf fine-cheese division. The unit has been aggressively promoting its line of cheeses - notably using old-time black-and-white images of a fictional folksy master cheese maker named "Alexis."

Alexis de Portneuf's Sauvagine - a soft washed-rind made from cow's milk - is sold as an artisanal cheese even though it contains modified milk ingredients and is made in less than craft-like conditions, Ms. Portelance said.

"This is not fair play," she said. Alexis de Portneuf - which enjoys prominent display in supermarket display cases across the country - is nothing more than a clever ploy to cash in on the fine-cheese trend, she said.

"Alexis" cheeses are not handcrafted and use such verboten ingredients as powdered milk, she said.

Fed up with Alexis and other modified milk products, Ms. Portelance's promotional agency - Fromages de Pays - is mounting a counteroffensive that directly takes on Saputo and other giants, notably Longueuil, Que.-based Agropur Cooperative Agro-Alimentaire, which owns the famed Oka brand once handmade by Trappist monks.

The group is launching a marketing campaign throughout the province to promote its members wares. The slogan: "Real milk. Real artisans."

"We have to assert ourselves even though we don't have anywhere near the money and distribution networks that the big companies have," she said.

Given their limited resources, the artisanal cheese makers are focusing on retailers rather than mounting an expensive ad blitz aimed at consumers. There are pamphlets for retailers to distribute, as well as stickers placed on the cheeses. 

Louis Aird, Saputo's expert director of imports and fine cheeses, says he's at pains to understand why his company and others are being singled out for opprobrium.

"It's this image of the big fabricator not being able to match what the smaller one does," says Mr. Aird, one of 12 Commanders of the Confrérie des chevaliers du Taste Fromage de France, an exclusive fraternity of cheese connoisseurs whose mission is to preach the good word about French-tradition refined cheeses. 

He said his company brings resources to the table that the smaller cheese makers don't have, including a strong research and development unit.

The term "modified milk ingredients" is a misleading one for dairy products that are simply components of milk that have been extracted by physical separation processes or technologies, according to Quebec Dairy Council research cited by Mr. Aird.

The former owner of a cheese boutique in tony Westmount, who waxes lyrical about his passion ("there's a poem in every cheese box"), insists Saputo has the right to use the term "artisanal" for some of its cheeses because traditional methods are strictly followed. 

The company, which is Canada's largest dairy processor - with a 37-per-cent share of Canada's cheese market - is also diversifying geographically. Earlier this year, it added to its U.S. operations with the $160-million (U.S.) acquisition of Alto Dairy Cooperative in Wisconsin, the 19th largest dairy co-op in the States.

While some purists may cringe, Saputo's push into fine cheese could pay off for shareholders. "The specialty cheese market is growing faster than the overall market and specialty is a target market for Saputo, with good growth potential," says Brian Yarbrough, an analyst with Edward Jones in the U.S. 

Gilles Jourdenais, owner of Fromagerie du Marché Atwater in Montreal, is considered one of the pioneers of fine-cheese wholesaling and retailing in Canada.

His take on the fromage fracas in Quebec is that it's too easy to view it as a conflict pitting the upholders of all that is true and pure in cheesedom against the big bad industrial parvenus.

Not all small producers turn out decent cheeses and some of the big boys' product is excellent, he believes.

"I don't like Saputo's mass-produced mozzarella but they do make some good smaller-batch cheeses."
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