Small island, big stomach
The Isle of Man was represented at the recent IFE in London with a presentation on the various food and drink items offered by the local companies. This included the Isle of Man Creamery., which has been producing dairy products there since 1919. Overall, the island moving to increase its exports further, with the introduction of its Food and Drink Export Development Group in 2023
With 84,000 residents, it is not the largest island, considering its neighbours Ireland and the UK, but it has expanded into a range of produce, from the traditional seafood and lamb to beer, salt, puddings and even popcorn. It is the only UNESCO recognised entire nation biosphere, which it promotes as key to its ethos.
The Isle of Man Creamery, for its part, has been collecting milk from its 28 family-owned dairy farmers on the 32 mile island for over 100 years, its managing director Findlay Macleod notes. Its grass-fed cows average 214 days per year with at least 70 per cent of their diet made up of fresh or dried grass throughout the year. The cheese making side of the business began back in the 1920s, when Gladys Davies moved to the island from Cheshire. It now employs more than 85 people in making cheese of varying types, milk, cream, butter and buttermilk. It also provides doorstep deliveries to its 7,000 customers island-wide.
The creamery offers a vintage Red Leicester, which it sells as Celtic Red in export markets. It has won awards at the Global Cheese Awards in the territorials category. Total production is around 1,800 tons of cheese per year, and about 450 tons is exported to various markets, Macleod explains. These range from the US, Australia, UK, Canada, Malta and Spain.
On the island, around 26 million litres of milk is produced annually and Macleod admits it is hard to compete with the mainland on UK and Irish supermarket shelves in the liquid segment. That being said, there has been growing enquires from the catering groups for its cream and butter products.
There is a lot of co-operation between the various food enterprises on the island, with for example, the creamery salted whey and dairy butter being made with Isle of Man Salt Company products. Tim Cowsill, CEO of Business Isle of Man, observes that the pandemic made the islanders realise that they needed a business development strategy, and to help new local producers to level up.
Interestingly, the average age of the farmer on the island has decreased over the last few years, with eight or nine farms being passed to the younger 30-something generation over the last three years, Macleod notes. Farming takes up about 75 per cent of the total landmass on the island, and so this move to the younger generation makes a difference, Cowsill points out.