Zamorano participants in the great cheese event are very satisfied with the sales and contacts established in Italy, with their sights set on making Zamora cheese known worldwide.
The twinning of the Bra and Fromago cheese fairs, agreed a few days ago in the Italian town where the great artisan cheese event is held, will be a boost for the event in the capital of Zamora, whose second edition will be in 2024 after the success achieved in 2022.
This is what the cheesemakers who have participated these days in ‘Cheese’, the fair of Bra. “The twinning of the fairs is an important success,” says Fernando Fregeneda, head of Quesería La Antigua, a company that has been setting up a stand in this Italian Piedmont city for years. Fernando Fregeneda, head of Quesería La Antigua, a company from the province that has been setting up a stand in this Italian Piedmont city for years. His opinion is shared by David Arroyo, the young Zamorano behind Queso Hircus, who attended the Italian event for the first time and is satisfied with the sales and contacts made.
The event planned for next year will be “an impressive support, especially for the cheese sector”, with the important “media impact” of the event. “media repercussion”, which will involve the representation of the Slow Food movement and the City of Bra which will involve having representation from the Slow Food movement and the Bra City Council, organizers of ‘Cheese’. “The challenge is internationalization,” which would make it easier “to put Zamora cheese not only on the map of Spain, but also on the worldmap,” says Fregeneda.
The Zamora Provincial Council has been present at the Italian fair in order to promote Fromago from the stand financed by Ifeza through the Zamora Global Missions project. During these days, it has carried out recruitment work with the idea of increasing the number of exhibitors for the next edition of ‘Fromago Cheese Experience’.
The International School of Dairy Industries (Eilza), in charge of managing the organization of Fromago 2024, was also in Bra.. “All the people we want to bring to Fromago are here.”The event was a “fruitful” one, says its president, Sara Fregeneda, satisfied with the “fruitfulness” of the Italian event.
This school, the only one of its kind in Spain, has also succeeded in attracting students from among Italian cheese entrepreneurs and other nationalities. Student exchanges have even been arranged with the University of Gastronomic Science located in Pollenza.
Despite the rain at certain times, cheese sales in Bra have been higher than in other years for Quesería La Antigua. This brand has the experience of having already attended four times, among the fourteen editions of ‘Cheese’. “For Spanish cheesemakers, the most important thing about this fair is not what we sell, but what we sell, but what we make known and the relationships we get” thanks to direct contact with importers from different countries, observes Fernando Fregeneda.
The sights are now set on ‘Fromago 2024’, with the challenge of surpassing the “tremendous success” achieved in 2022, who knows if, as the cheese maker himself points out, “the fruit of destiny” in a province that is struggling to “recover its identity” in this sector.
