Thousands of cheese lovers make SA Cheese Festival a success

ABC Q3 2024: Magazine momentum continues to build with some good performances

Danette Breitenbach

According to Johan Ehlers, CEO of Agri-Expo, organisers of the 16th SA Cheese Festival with a focus on cheese and the diverse dairy product's culinary companions, the event was a huge success. The festival was held at Sandringham where around 30,000 people enjoyed 30 tonnes of cheese from boutique and larger commercial cheeseries from across South Africa.

Select celebrities like Nataniël, Jenny Morris, Amore Bekker and Carmen Niehaus entertained and inspired cheese lovers to new culinary heights.

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One of the additions to this year’s programme was the Agri-Expo Cheesery where visitors were able to spend quality time with some of the country’s best cheese makers. According to Mags Baleta from Klein River Cheese outside Stanford this provided cheeseries with the ideal opportunity to share their expertise with consumers and to perform important market research.

Cheese makers put their best foot forward by wooing the consumer with new and innovative cheeses, including those flavoured with coffee, red wine, and lavender. Artisan cheese makers taking part for the first time agreed that the broad and simultaneous exposure of their products to such a large group of cheese lovers is indeed invaluable.

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Agri-Expo joined forces with the Western Cape Department of Agriculture to enable smaller producers and entrepreneurs to expose the consumer to their unique niche products such as figs, pomegranates, honey, mushrooms and more – all the perfect cheese companions.