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| Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity |
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28/05/2009 |
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Bosnia Herzegovina: the Association of Herzegovina Sack Cheese Producers, a Slow Food Presidium, is born.
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On Monday May 25, 43 small producers from all parts of Herzegovina met in Mostar to form the Association of Herzegovina Sack Cheese Producers.
The Slow Food Sack Cheese Presidium, created with the support of the Province of Arezzo and UCODEP, is named after its container—a large sack of sheepskin turned inside out which is used to make forms varying between 40 and 70 kg in weight, depending on the size of the animal. Despite the enormous cultural value the cheese has for Herzegovina, the unequal competition with industrial products together with a lack of institutional interest in rural development was consigning this unique artisan cheese to the history books.
A radiant Miroslav Glogovac, a young producer, newly elected President of the association, unhesitatingly calls it a historic day. “Now we can finally express our needs. We have many challenges in front of us, first of all to obtain legislation permitting us to make raw milk cheese, but we now have more reason to be confident about our future”.
It is hard to disagree. In a country still affected by the aftermath of the civil war of the 1990s, where the countryside is emptying before one’s eyes and small scale products cannot find a market, it is rare to see Croat, Serb and Muslim producers coming together around a table to resolve their problems.
The meeting was also an opportunity to adopt production rules for the Presidium, an essential step in ensuring high quality standards for small-scale artisan products. Shared by all the producers, the rules were drawn up by the producers themselves in collaboration with ANFOSC (The National Association for the Protection and Promotion of Cheeses from Grazing Animals/The National Association of Open-Air Cheeses) and academics from the Faculty of Agriculture at Sarajevo University.
The Sack Cheese Presidium is part of the activities of the project “Protection and Promotion of Quality Herzegovina Food Products” financed by Italian Cooperation and implemented by the NGOs UCODEP and CEFA. Among the Italian partners, essential technical assistance in setting up this Presidium was provided by The National Association for the Protection and Promotion of Open-Air Cheeses (ANFOSC).
Other Technical Partners of the Presidium are: Farming services of the Tuscan Regional Government, Province of Arezzo, Council for Research and Experimentation in Farming (CRA), Agrarian Faculty the University of Sarajevo, Association of farmers of the Municipality of Nevesinje, Ministry of Farming of Srpska Republic and Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina.
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