New Firm Bringing Cheese to the World: Sheboygan's Artisan Cheese Exchange

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 24, 2006

This article was originally printed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Written by JOHN SCHMID

Like the spice routes of Asia or the fabled East India Tea Co., a quest for global trade is driving Christopher Gentine around the world.

"I just got back from Tokyo yesterday," Gentine said by telephone from his office in Sheboygan. "I'm headed to Britain next week."

Gentine on Tuesday announced that he and his wife, Julie, inaugurated the Artisan Cheese Exchange, an export management company that links gourmet cheesemakers in the United States with buyers in overseas markets.

Their efforts to carve new cheese routes remain in start-up mode with a small staff in the former Woolworth building in downtown Sheboygan. And while Gentine has not yet cut any major deals on Limburger or Muenster, he has faith that non-American palates represent a big market for specialty fromage, much of it from the cheesehead state.

"These are rock-star quality cheesemakers," Gentine said, commenting on the producers that he aims to represent abroad.

He speaks effusively of creamy 10-year-old aged cheddars, award-winning farmstead cheeses from Dodgeville, and Cocoa Cardona made from Wisconsin goat's milk.

The state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said Wisconsin exported $22 million in cheese in the second quarter of 2006.

But most Wisconsin cheese exports, not surprisingly, are for mass-market commodity cheeses like common cheddar and shredded mozzarella, Gentine said.

"I was in that business for a long time," said Gentine, whose grandfather in 1953 founded Wisconsin-based Sargento Foods Inc., a major national cheese brand.

Gentine worked at Sargento in college and then moved to his father's company, Masters Gallery Foods, a privately held cheese packaging firm. Julie Gentine was an assistant buyer for luxury retailer Neiman Marcus and a buyer for Kohl's Department Stores.

"Most artisan cheeses are consumed in the United States," said Lisa Stout, a marketing official at the state Department of Agriculture. "There are not large volumes of it."

Gentine said he doesn't have specific targets for the global cheese trade but guesses that his business should be able to facilitate shipments of 1.5 million to 2 million pounds of high-grade cheese each year.

Asia seems like a promising market, the cheese broker said. The British - who pioneered the first cheddars - also seem open to eating more than their familiar Wensleydale and Stinking Bishop, he said. "I'm looking at trips to Taipei and possibly Korea," he said.

But for now, Gentine is steering clear of France, Italy and Switzerland, which are some of the world's most closed and protected markets for agricultural trade. Even though Europeans, with their refined taste, might appreciate American specialty cheeses, Gentine isn't ready to compete against French Camembert, Swiss Gruyère or Italian Parmigiano.

"Those are difficult markets because of their strong heritage," Gentine said.