A Cheesy Affair

Nikhil Agarwal talks about artisanal cheese produced in India

- Nikhil Agarwal

Introducing a new product line to any market is hard; but what is twice as hard is creating a whole consumer trend for it, and hopefully a lasting one. In this case, it is international styles of cheese for the Indian market — an unfamiliar culture here.

For the well-travelled Indian palate, many believe that taste of most alcohol, cheese and chocolate varieties, common to European countries cannot be reproduced in India, let alone match the quality. Understanding such prejudices helps one empathise with Indian cheese producers. Despite putting quality produce on the shelf, they have had a hard time dealing with scepticism arising from consumer unawareness. This is simply because the cheese is made in India, a country not known to have produced the item before the 21st century, except for cottage cheese or paneer.

Having said that, what we need is a reminder that dairy has always been an important revenue stream for India. Currently, we produce about 400 million litres of milk a day. And so it isn’t really that much of a “mozzarella stretch” that we make cheese or should be making cheese. The truth is that Indian cheese no longer just starts and stops with paneer.

We have Amul, the first known Indian company to make its version of Cheddar cheese in the 1960s. Many have followed since — Britannia, Gowardhan and Mother Dairy. These homegrown giants are best known for their packaged processed Cheddar, mozzarella and cream cheese.