Regional Prospects of Cheese Making Industry: Current Status and Development

Abstract

Cheese is a unique product of animal origin. The history of cheese-making dates back millennia, and every nation has its own traditional cheese formulations. Recent decades have seen a growing public interest in craft cheese-making and national cheese-making. As a multinational country, Russia boasts a wide range of traditional cheeses. However, the domestic cheese market belongs mainly to such popular foreign cheese sorts as Mozzarella, Camembert, Tilsit, Brie, etc. The steady increase in consumer demand for cheese products encourages cheese-makers to expand their product range, and, in their search for new formulations, they often appeal to traditional cheeses, e.g., those produced in the Altai Region. Despite this trend, the average annual per capita consumption of cheese in Russia remains at 6.5 kg while in some other developed countries this criterion is as high as 16 kg. The present development assessment of the Russian cheese-making industry showed a severe shortage in domestic direct-application starter cultures. Russian cheese-makers prefer imported recombinant milk-clotting enzymes, which significantly hampers industrial development. A new domestic production could provide enough raw materials to satisfy the growing demand for rennet products. At present, the raw milk production capabilities cannot meet the ever-increasing needs. The domestic market of dairy raw materials is dominated by cow milk while goat milk and sheep milk are associated mainly with soft cheeses, and buffalo milk occupies a very narrow sector of craft cheese-making.