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David Thames sniffs out an opportunity to add flavour to the street mix
Tim Harrison is about to open a cheese shop. Or a cheese café. Or a cheese café-type shop. Four years ago, Harrison, who runs the family farming business near Horsham. West Sussex, decided to diversify into cheesemaking. With his farm producing 6.5m litres of milk a year and dairy prices unstable at best, he realised cheese production was a good way to add value and provide a more reliable income.
Today, his Sussex Charmer brand - a South Coast cross between Cheddar and parmesan - is gaining a big following. It is sold at country shows and farmers' markets, and Sussex Charmer is now storming the supermarkets, including the Co-Op and Sainsbury's. It will soon have its own brand-focused high street shop - or café.
Harrison is not alone in turning turophile. Almost every shopping basket in the land regularly contains cheese. Whether it's a shrink-wrapped block or an artisan-made affordable luxury, cheese sales have grown during the recession, up by about 3% annually and by nearly 6% in 201 1 . It is estimated that we each spend more than £95 a year on cheese.
UK cheese production has also steeply increased, as many hard-pressed dairy farmers make the same calculations that persuaded Harrison to launch his venture. Today, about a quarter of the UK's annual production of 13bn litres of milk is turned into cheese.
The best industry estimates suggest there are upwards of 200 independent cheesemongers in the UK. as well as several hundred independent delis with well-stocked cheese counters. And more are opening every week. They could account for cheese sales worth as much as £240m a year.
Harrison says: "We're looking at a 1 .500 sq ft high street shop. That's more than we need just to sell cheese - we want it to be a kind of ^ café, too."
The idea is that Sussex Charmer -...