Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

If you don’t care for the smell of cheese, you might want to give the Swiss village of Morgins a miss this weekend. The first Raclette World Championships are being held there, with around 90 cheeses being sniffed, melted and tasted.

Keystone / Neil Hall

In the news:  Curbing Geneva’s deer population, reducing CO2 emissions caused by the Swiss healthcare system, and a legal dispute involving the UN, the Swiss government and a Basel-based environmental organisation.

• The growing population of roe deer, stags and wild boars in Geneva should be curbed not with bullets but with contraception, says animal protection association Animal Equité. It is calling on the Geneva cantonal government to stop shootings of wild animals and to carry out a pilot study to test the effectiveness of a vaccine for contraception.
• The Swiss healthcare system is responsible for 6-8% of the country’s total CO2 emissions, according to Lausanne’s chief physician Nicolas Senn. Measures such as more energy-efficient buildings would already greatly reduce emissions, he said. “The ecological impact of healthcare kills as many people as medical errors,” he said.
• The UN Special Rapporteur for environmental defenders has criticised Switzerland for doing too little to prevent an intimidation suit against the Bruno Manser Fund in Basel. Michel Forst expressed “grave concern” about several legal steps taken by the Malaysian-Canadian couple Jamilah Taib Murray and Sean Murray and their company Sakto Corporation against the environmental organisation.

Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

The aroma of raclette will envelop Morgins this weekend. The mountain village in canton Valais, southwest Switzerland, will be hosting the first Raclette World Championships, during which 90 cheeses will be sampled. The results will be announced on Sunday.

The jurors will meet on Saturday in the centre of Morgins to taste the various wheels of cheese divided into three categories: raw alpine milk, raw dairy milk and other raclette cheeses, said Christophe Berra, president of the organising committee for this first event.

Raclette cheese, whose name comes from the French world “racler” meaning to scrape, is the key ingredient in one of Switzerland’s best-loved dishes. The cheese is melted under a special grill then scraped onto a plate and eaten with potatoes and pickles.

Eighty-seven producers, mostly from canton Valais, are lining up with one or two cheeses. Among them are the 16 producers from the Vallée d’Illiez, “which shows real support for the event”, Berra enthuses.

There will also be cheeses from Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel and German-speaking Switzerland. Others will have travelled from France, Italy, Belgium, Romania, Canada and the UK.

The Canadian candidate is in fact a Swiss Abroad – an expat cheese producer from Valais. The Romanian got such a taste for melted cheese when he came to work in Valais that he decided to produce it at home, Berra explained.

The organisers had also hoped to attract cheesemakers from Japan, Brazil and Argentina, but administrative complications and tight deadlines thwarted their plans. “That will be for another edition,” Berra said.

The experts won’t have a monopoly on the cheese. From Friday, the public will also be able to enjoy raclettes through tastings, workshops and other activities.

Colour, body, texture, strength, aroma – “the tasting is like a wine tasting”, Berra said.

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

Good news – sort of – for shoppers in the Swiss capital, Bern. From December 1, shops in the Old Town will be allowed to stay open until 6pm on Saturdays, one hour longer than before.

However, in return, late-night shopping on Thursdays will be shortened by an hour. Evening sales on Thursday evenings have been less frequented in recent years. On the other hand, the shops are well frequented on Saturday afternoons, Bern government said in a statementExternal link today.

The new opening hours are intended to accommodate the shopping habits of customers, it said. In addition, the retail trade should be able to position itself better regarding online trade.

The pilot project, which will run until the end of 2025, is intended to provide information about the needs and shopping habits of customers, said the authorities, which will evaluate the project after its completion and will also take into account the effects on sales staff.