France’s traditional cheeses go to waste due to Covid health crisis as farmers urge consumers to maintain their French culture.

France traditional cheeses go to waste due to Covid health crisis as farmers urge consumers to maintain their French culture.

FRENCH citizens are being encouraged to eat more of the nation’s cheese after the country’s Coronavirus outbreak caused sales to slump and left farmers with tons of wasted produce.
Michel Lacoste, the president of the National Council of Appellations of Dairy Origin (CNAOL), stated that sales had dropped by 60 per cent from the start of the lockdown on March 17. He also estimated that producers will be left with 5,000 tons of overstock at the end of the pandemic.
Lacoste said French consumers had “turned away” from cheese since the outbreak began. “They changed their habits and turned to basic necessities,” he said, leaving the industry facing a “huge loss.”
“We farmers, producers, we were not confined. We didn’t stop working. We worked every day,” he said. “So eat cheese, make a fair trade act to maintain the French culture, the French tradition, the French heritage, that we all share.”
Non-essential shops have been shut in France for weeks leaving stockists with a huge wedge of products untouched.
“For 80 per cent of cheeses, the shelf life does not exceed eight weeks, and for some, even less than a month,” CNAOL said in a press release, as it launched a campaign to encourage people to support the industry.
Emergency measures are expected to continue in France until July 24.
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