In brief
Neal's Yard Dairy reports the disappearance of 22 metric tons of rare Cheddar, valued at nearly $390,000, in a scam that shocked cheese producers across the UK.
It’s been dubbed "the great cheese heist," and it’s made serious waves in the artisanal British cheese industry. This crisis began when Neal’s Yard Dairy, a prominent cheese retailer in London, reported that 22 metric tons of rare Cheddar, valued at approximately £300,000 or $390,000, had vanished without a trace. Patrick Holden, whose dairy farm in Wales supplied some of the missing Cheddar, expressed disbelief over the situation: “We never imagined that this sort of thing would happen. Of course, people have bad debts. But theft? I mean, that just doesn’t happen.”The trouble started in July when Neal’s Yard received a significant order from what they believed to be a reputable wholesale distributor linked to a notable French supermarket chain. They enlisted Holden’s farm along with two other producers, Westcombe Dairy and Trethowan Brothers, to fulfill the massive order, which was more than a single producer could supply alone.Holden recalls feeling a sense of pride, sharing the news that a French retailer wanted to buy British cheese: “We’d been going around, proudly, saying: ‘Guess what, a French supermarket is buying our cheese,’” he chuckled. However, as details emerged, the excitement gave way to alarm as the shipment turned out to be a meticulously plotted scam that has left artisanal cheese makers questioning the safety of their business relationships.
