VisitCHN

Stilton cheese is to appear in China for the first time after one of the country’s biggest dairy producers agreed to import hundreds of tonnes of the pungent delicacy.

Sales of milk, yoghurt and cheese in China have been rising along with incomes as the government encourages people to eat more nutritious foods. But although the country is the world’s fourth largest dairy producer, it makes very little cheese.

Now British dairy producer Milk Link, based in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire and owner of the Tuxford & Tebbutt Stilton brand, has signed a two-year deal with Yili Group to export Stilton – the first direct exports of the cheese to China. The initial orders have been dispatched and will be on shelves within weeks.

The cheese will be sold in supermarkets along the Chinese east coast, including branches of Tesco, Wal-Mart and Carrefour , while quarter-wheels will also be sent to upmarket hotel chains. Milk Link is going to help train Yili’s salesforce, for which selling Stilton poses a novel challenge – most of the cheese marketed by the group is of the bland, processed variety.

The Stilton will appear under a new brand, called Pure Day. “The Chinese haven’t got a hope in hell of saying Tuxford & Tebbutt,” said Terry Ward, Milk Link’s commercial director.

Sales will be targeted at some 200m of the country’s wealthiest citizens. “The urban elite want their kids to have the best,” Mr Ward said.

Some 85 per cent of Blue Stilton made by the six English dairies licensed to produce it is sold in the UK, with most exports going to the US and Canada. By law, Stilton can only be made in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Sales of Stilton in the UK have been flat in recent years.

But producers have already taken notice of China as a potential new market.

The Stilton Cheesemakers’ Association has trademarked the Stilton name in China amid expectations the country will become a significant destination for British cheese over the next decade.

“The Chinese have not traditionally been great consumers of dairy but we know that their eating patterns are changing and becoming more western,” said Nigel White, the association’s secretary.

Total cheese exports from the UK to China – mostly cheddar – are very low, accounting for just three tonnes last year, but Milk Link expects the Stilton deal will pave the way for more exports to the country.

The deal follows two years of negotiations and is expected to return hundreds of thousands of pounds to the dairy farmers who co-own Milk Link.

Milk Link, which also makes cheeses for Marks & Spencer and J. Sainsbury own label brands, claims to make one-third of the 10,000 tonnes of Stilton sold each year in the UK, selling more than £10m of the cheese annually.

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