THE NETHERLANDS – Arla Foods has seen sales of its cheese rocket recently, thanks to a marketing campaign carefully tailored to suit Dutch cheese eating habits.

In the last six months the Scandinavian giant has kept away from its more exotic brands in the Netherlands: the likes of the tangy Havarti and Esrom have been kept in the background. Instead, international winners such as Feta from Denmark, Buko cream cheeses and Finello shredded cheese have been heavily promoted.

Arla’s Feta, which is available in Holland as a 10% fat salad cheese, has proved extremely popular. The Buko products have also proved successful, and are already cream cheese market leaders for Arla in Germany. Most popular amongst Arla’s Finello products in Holland is the shredded Mozzarella: the company now produces 18,000 tonnes per year of Mozzarella, mainly for shredding.

The group is now the leading foreign supplier of cheese here, with turnover in 2002 of