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Speaker 2: There's a new craze. Apparently it involves cottage cheese. High protein,
Speaker 2: low calorie. Recipes that include the dairy product are sending
Speaker 2: social media into something of a frenzy. Sales going through
Speaker 2: the roof Fonterra up sixty percent in the past twelve months,
Speaker 2: Woolworth's up fifty percent in the past three months alone.
Speaker 2: Kevin Hagen is the owner of Organic Cheesemaker, the Cheese
Speaker 2: Barn and the Wykatto region and Kevin joins me.
Speaker 3: Now good a good tam, thanks for having me. I'll
Speaker 3: actually Kevin Jenkins, I'm from a company called a Cheese Wheel.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. Well, I don't know where we got
Speaker 2: that going from.
Speaker 3: That's okay, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Sorry? Okay, Well, anyway, are you seeing this increase in
Speaker 2: demand as well?
Speaker 3: Yes, we are, And funny enough, I started eating more
Speaker 3: cottage cheese a few months ago, so I don't know
Speaker 3: what's happening. I already got the role with childs in it. Hey,
Speaker 3: but I do have another message, Tim, and that is
Speaker 3: about thirty arts and cheesemakers in New Zealand, and most
Speaker 3: of them can't get their product to market. Supermarkets and
Speaker 3: dellies just don't stock them, and so they do it hard.
Speaker 3: So what I do, what our firm does is we've
Speaker 3: put four each month in a box and we deliver
Speaker 3: it to your door. And that's growing as well. And
Speaker 3: there is more interesting cotta of cheese and no surprise.
Speaker 3: But my message is it's an entry level drug. You know,
Speaker 3: enjoy it. But once you've got the hang of cottage cheese,
Speaker 3: look around and start to hunt down some of the
Speaker 3: even more delicious New Zealand cheese.
Speaker 2: Well, you don't need to sell me on the on
Speaker 2: the artisan cheese is. I'm a big fan of that
Speaker 2: stuff myself, But what do you I mean, the social media,
Speaker 2: it's amazing how powerful it is with them with just
Speaker 2: influencing one particular type of cheese. And I guess the
Speaker 2: thing is, I mean, you can have your luxury artisan cheese,
Speaker 2: but the cottage cheese can be sort of daily staple.
Speaker 3: Isn't that you can exactly? But hey, the ads and
Speaker 3: cheese is they're not already that expensive. I mean some are, sure,
Speaker 3: only because they take a long time to make well
Speaker 3: or of the trick of the cottage cheese. You can
Speaker 3: make it at home. All of it does is curdled
Speaker 3: milk essentially, and yet it the next day, whereas like
Speaker 3: some of the more expensive cheeses, is something you can
Speaker 3: put it on the shelf for five ten years. You know, delicious,
Speaker 3: so right, and it's work with it.
Speaker 2: What do you think is going to happen with this
Speaker 2: cottage cheese craze? Is it going to be going to
Speaker 2: be something that keeps going? Is the market going to
Speaker 2: be met by supply? I mean, is the demand going
Speaker 2: to be met by supply or what do you think?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think it can be because for the look,
Speaker 3: if you look at the economics of it, small ads
Speaker 3: and cheesemakers, you'll often see them also make yogurt and
Speaker 3: things like cottage cheese and other fresh cheeses because they
Speaker 3: can turn it around quickly. You know, if you have
Speaker 3: to put cheese, even like soft cheese like a can
Speaker 3: and beer breestyle, if you have to put on the
Speaker 3: shelf for a few months, there's some money tied up, right,
Speaker 3: So I think it will be. And also, you know,
Speaker 3: let's be honest, it's delicious and you can use it
Speaker 3: in all sorts of different ways seen to.
Speaker 2: I mean, this demand is quite unusual, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Well, it is. You know, when I was a kid,
Speaker 3: I thought I associated cottage cheese with for fees and
Speaker 3: the like, you know, and I wouldn't touch with the
Speaker 3: bashbold did and taste of anything. I've sort of grown up,
Speaker 3: you know, it's sort of it's a lot. It's a
Speaker 3: lot better than what I thought. It's great stuff. And
Speaker 3: like I said, I'm eating a lot more of it myself.
Speaker 3: But hey, I keep saying it. Don't stop there, you know,
Speaker 3: sears you out some of the more flavors and cheeses,
Speaker 3: some of the age cheeses, some of the soft and
Speaker 3: hard cheeses that New Zealand makes. But like I won't
Speaker 3: go away no cheese. The consumption of cheese all around
Speaker 3: the world has been grown since the Second World War,
Speaker 3: and it continues to grow. And the percentage of that
Speaker 3: growth that there's garbison cheese is growing even more all
Speaker 3: around the world.
Speaker 2: Good stuff, Kevin. And if people want to get your
Speaker 2: stuff out of mind, you're throwing throwing your contact out
Speaker 2: that it's a cheese, Well, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's www. The Cheesewheel dot co dot nz. Sign
Speaker 3: up now and your life will be better.
Speaker 2: Okay, there we go. Get your hands on some cheese.
Speaker 2: Quite remarkable though it's simple. Just be one of those
Speaker 2: things that kept caught a wave and cottage cheesus the thing.
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