Gran Canaria cheese promotion fails him.

OF ALL THE ISLANDS, GRAN CANARIA IS THE ONE WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF HEADS AND DAIRIES.

The cheeses of Gran Canaria are unique in the world for many factors.. One of them, the maturation of some in caves; other, the second largest goat herd in the country: 100.000 heads, and unique flavors, but they are not known or marketed enough due to lack of promotion.

According to the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, this lack of promotion means that not even on the same island, some cheeses are sufficiently known that, For its quality, would deserve a distribution.

Gran Canaria has a total 174 artisanal cheese factories that make cheese mostly with raw milk, except for soft cheese, which gives it a special flavor, since when milk is pasteurized the taste changes.

Many cheeses are cured in dark places, humid and with a different microclimate, like caves, which, together with traditional grazing and way of caring for the animal, results in a unique cheese.

In Gran Canaria there are very good and very varied cheeses, as shown by last year's World Cheese Awards, in which a total of 2.500 cheeses from all over the world from more than 300 countries, Gran Canaria obtained 30 of the hundred medals awarded.

In Gáldar, Santa María de Guía and Moya cheeses are curdled with natural thistle flower, a technique that was apparently imported from the peninsula at the time of the conquest of the Canary Islands, and which was already used in Portugal and Extremadura, like the wedding cake.

There are mandatory milk percentages for blended cheeses., so that the 60 percent is sheep, the 40 percent cow and 20 goat percent.

The largest goat herd, after Andalusia, is in the Canary Islands, which is followed by Castilla La Mancha. Of all the islands, Gran Canaria is the one that has the most goats, with around 100.000 heads, in addition to some 10.000 cows and 25.000 sheep.

In Gran Canaria cheese consumption is very high, above the national average, which amounts to six kilos per person per year, one of the lowest in Europe, since the Greeks consume 30 kilos and France and Italy about 20 kilos per year.

Consumption exceeds production, which makes them import around 30 from 40 million kilos of cheese per year. Despite the high quality of the island's cheeses, They encounter marketing difficulties in establishments, since it must compete with what is imported at a cheaper price thanks to the aid from the Special Supply Regime (REA) So what, many times, it is of worse quality.

Currently, a great effort is being made to make the cheeses of Gran Canaria known to the citizens., so that the consumer requests it in stores, a task that must continue in the future to guarantee the survival of a traditional way of making cheeses.