The Swiss may be eating more cheese than ever – around 22.9kg per person in 2022 – but dairy farms in the country are disappearing twice as fast as other agricultural producers, Beuret says in an interview published on SaturdayExternal link by the newspaper Le Temps.
“For the first time, this year we will be importing more cheese than we export [in tonnes],” he says. “This is the result of a liberalisation process that began at the end of the 1990s and is more far-reaching than for cereals or meat.”
Since 2007, when the cheese market was liberalised, Swiss cheeses have lost a domestic market share of 12%. According to Beuret, the current system has reached its limits.
“If we want to meet the population’s food needs effectively, we need to continue producing milk throughout the country,” says Beuret. “Otherwise, we’ll end up importing it, which would be an economic, social and ecological absurdity.”
Prices in supermarkets agreed through a complex system of compromise do not cover the growing production costs for milk producers, Le Temps reveals. An investigation a year ago by the paper in collaboration with Heidi.news showed that the country’s biggest retailers, Migros and Coop, were making very high margins on a range of dairy products.
“I’m convinced that consumers are ready to understand that we need to be properly remunerated if we are to continue in this direction [of sustainable production],” says Beuret.
Popular Stories
More
Swiss Abroad
The citizenship obstacle course facing spouses of Swiss Abroad
This content was published on
The Ethos Foundation recommends that shareholders vote against all compensation-related items at the Annual General Meeting on March 7.
Top Swiss firms close to reaching gender quota in boards
This content was published on
The proportion of women on the boards of directors of the fifty largest listed companies in Switzerland currently stands at 28%.
Swiss committee wants to end government resignations during legislative term
This content was published on
Members of the Federal Council should no longer be able to leave office before the end of their term, according to a House of Representatives committee.
Swiss government seat: Ritter and Pfister nominated to succeed Amherd
This content was published on
Markus Ritter from St Gallen and Martin Pfister from Zug were officially nominated by the Centre Party on Friday to succeed Defence Minister Viola Amherd.
Top Swiss court rejects Russian request for administrative tax assistance
This content was published on
There is currently no reason to transmit banking information to the Russian Federation, the Swiss Federal Court has ruled.
After strike by radiologists, doctors demonstrate in Bern
This content was published on
Following a strike by radiology technicians in Fribourg, doctors, vets, dentists and chiropractors expressed their frustration on Friday outside parliament in the Swiss capital.
This content was published on
In the United States, a court of appeal has ruled that Gruyère is a generic name. This means that anyone can now label their cheese as “gruyere”.
This content was published on
Until the Second World War fondue was little known in Switzerland. A a marketing campaign turned it into a national dish.
‘Cheese first’ policy forces Switzerland to import extra 1,000 tons of butter
This content was published on
Switzerland has increased the quota for low-tariff butter imports by 1,000 metric tons despite protests from local farmers that it will damage their business. The ministry for agriculture says the measure is needed to avoid Swiss households running out of butter this year. Frozen butter reserves shrank to 1,500 tons, and while they recovered to…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.