The family of Ismail Karadjov from the picturesque Rhodope town of Sarnitsa has strictly preserved the traditions and taste of the yellow cheese. How did they come up with the idea for a family dairy farm?

“Our settlement is situated in the heart of the RhodopeMountain. The air is crystal clear, the cattle is fed with pure grass only and the milk is of an excellent quality. The idea for the production of Rhodope yellow cheese was reborn when a Greek company bought the former dairy farm of Serdika in the town of Velingrad and asked me to buy milk for them from the region, as they had researched about the quality of the product. It was back in the period 2001 – 2002. In the process of milk purchasing a relative of ours, who had used to make brine cheese and yellow cheese through the old manual method started to do it for us. We found out that milk producers showed interest towards our traditional, pure yellow cheese. Thus we began to use that method and it took us several years.”

What kind of milk products do you make?

“Yellow cheese, butter and curd. We have three units for these three products. We are now expanding the dairy farm for the production of white brined cheese, yoghurt, milk and processed cheese. Our goal is the 100% pureness of the products, made from regional milk. We don’t buy milk from other spots, as the quality is going down,” Ismail Karadjov says.

We ask him about the unique taste of their yellow cheese. The answer is that milk contributes the most, as the area of Sarnitsa is environmentally clean and farm animals here are not fed on fodder. Only top category milk is used. The yeast is the other essential thing – the farm uses plant-based yeast and a Bulgarian milk culture. Besides that the hygiene is perfect.

What is the contribution of the European projects?

“We hadn’t even heard of EU funding when we started, but we wouldn’t have made it up to here without it, we would have skid, got scared and perhaps given up. The appliances are very expensive and we can’t afford those without the EU money. That funding does help us a lot” Mr. Karadjov says.

What about the competition?

The farm owner answers with a smile:

“We deal with the competition, as the product is of a really good quality. I would even say that our reputation is second to none. The formula is – good quality and a high price. If both quality and price are low then we might have some competition. Our yellow cheese is among the most expensive, but we focus on quality and this saves us from competition.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev