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
Foreign affairs
European nations snub Swiss-made weapons over Ukraine restrictions
Switzerland will deliver rubble removal equipment to Ukraine
This content was published on
Thirty rubble removal machines and thirty fire-fighting pumps: this is the equipment that Switzerland will be delivering to the Ukraine in the next few days. The total value of these goods is 5.6 million Swiss francs.
A third of Swiss residents plan to change health insurers
This content was published on
After the announced sharp increase in premiums for 2025, about one in three people would be considering changing health insurance companies.
Swiss-led study unravels tree growth and longevity
This content was published on
Trees reach old age using different strategies. This is shown by a Swiss-led research team with over 100 scientists from all over the world in a new study, for which they analyzed trees that live to be over three thousand years old.
This content was published on
The man who injured three children on Tuesday has been detained in pre-trial custody after a request by the public prosecutor’s office.
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.