Goodbye tofu and hello beer cheese

Two trading setbacks for the private dairy Allgouland Kosereien haven’t stopped the 580 million kg per year cheese specialist in southern Germany from reporting an otherwise successful 2007.

Turnover is up by 12% on the year to just over €400 million with over 33,000 tonnes of cheese sold.

It was also a very good year for organic dairy products from Allgouland. Although the company chose to keep actual income to itself, chairman Dieter Krayl let slip that sales from this sector shot up by more than 30% during 2007. This success led to one of the company’s setbacks because the income could have been much higher but organic farmers in Allgouland’s collection area were not able to produce enough milk to meet the demand.

Another disappointment marks the end of the dairy’s attempts to start a non-milk sector with tofu products. Krayl reported that production had to be closed down during the year as foreign competition in this line was just too strong. At the same time a new winner from the traditional cheese front was announced with first year successes claimed for the new “Weissbierkose‚” (wheat beer cheese) under the dairy’s Bergbauern label.