The exposition of Santo Antão’s cheese at this fair, which features more than 1,700 types of cheese and is visited by more than 200,000 people, some 1,000 of which are journalists, could be the final test for the product to be considered a world culinary heritage. For professor Giuseppe Quaranta of the University of Turin’s Animal Pathology Department, which manages the Bolona Project, the idea of classifying Santo Antão’s cheese emerged from contacts with Slow Food, an entity that identifies all of the world’s specific culinary products. “We believe it’s important to highlight not only the culinary aspect of Santo Antão’s cheese, but mainly the expression of the culture of the population of the Planalto Norte and their respect for the cheese-making tradition,” says the professor.

With this in mind, samples and photographs of the cheese-making process were taken to Italy. Slow Food became interested and visited Cape Verde to obtain a first-hand look at the production process. “That was when we presented the cheese’s candidacy as a World Culinary Heritage. The first evaluation was positive. Now we’re going to display the product at an international cheese fair held in Italy. The fair will take place in September and is expected to be visited by more than 200,00 people.”

For the mentors of the Bolona Project, more than just showing the world this cheese, the fair will make people aware of the problems faced its makers in Santo Antão. It also means that many of the tourists who visit Cape Verde will want to try the cheese. “We also have the possibility of opening a commercial channel between Cape Verde and the rest of the world. The Slow Food community alone, which was founded in 1899 and has 104 member countries, encompasses more than 800,000 associates and works with some 2,000 restaurants. It’s possible that they’’ want to include Bolona cheese, produced in Santo Antao, on their menus. We’re optimistic about the perspectives.”

The Bolona Project

The Bolona Project, the most visible phase of which, at least for the time being, is the production of cheese in the Planalto Norte region of Santo Antão, also includes a program for the improvement of agricultural and farming products on the island, according to veterinarians Giuseppe Quaranta and Mitzy Mauthe. The project, which will last three years and began two weeks ago, calls for various different activities. “The manufacturing of Bolona cheese takes place on the Planalto Norte, some 30 kilometers from the city of Porto Novo. It’s a modern and completely autonomous structure in terms of electricity, functioning with solar panels,” explains Quaranta.

The establishment produces traditional Santo Antão cheese and a variety of cheese that is very well-known in Italy called ricotta. Profits from the sale of the cheese, says Quaranta, will be divided into three parts, with 30% for the farmers who raise the animals, 30% for the workers and 40% to be invested into social projects. A total of 66 farmers will be directly involved in the project. These farmers asked for a school, a social center and a health post to be built on the Planalto Norte as a part of the project. “We began with a group of 10 farmers. According to our calculations, in 2008 we’ll be working with 32 and in the final year, 2009, with 66. The factory has the capacity to process 500 liters of milk in two hours, which represents the production of 180 kilos of cheese and 30 kilos of ricotta. But we can produce two or three lots a day, as long as we can sell the product.”

Despite this relatively high capacity, the factory is working with just 95 liters of milk in its initial phase, as those who will eventually guarantee production are still being trained. But expectations are that beginning in June production will reach 500 liters of milk per day. “At the moment we have five people working at the cheese factory. Prior to this we had to orient farmers on how to treat the animals, which will undergo rigid health controls. All of the project’s goats, about 80 of them, are duly identified. Our objective is to have seven thousand goats,” says Quaranta, who added that the project is being followed by the University of Turin’s Animal Pathology Department.

The cost of the Bolona Project, which is being financed by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is 1.24 million euros and is concentrated mainly on the production of cheese. The project also encompasses the digging of wells, the installation of milk pasteurizing units and the creation of an animal feed factory.

Cooperation

Cooperation between Italy’s Piemonte region and Porto Novo is the result of the arrival of capuchin monks in Cape Verde some fifty years ago. In Santo Antão’s Planalto Norte region, the monks have been present for some 30 years. The difficulties encountered there ended up spurring small-scale projects, which in turn brought visitors from Piemonte to Cape Verde, among them the veterinarian Giuseppe Quaranta. “When the professor saw the characteristics of the Planalto Norte region and, particularly, when he found out that the population worked mainly in animal husbandry, he asked us why there wasn’t a cheese factory in the region. So he set up a project, which received support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The idea of adding a pasteurizing center, a well and an animal ration production unit emerged, as did that of training personnel and farmers. The community supported the project, which also garnered the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment and the Porto Novo municipal chamber,” says brother Silvino, one of the capuchin monks responsible for the relations between Piemonte and Porto Novo.

In the opinion of Leão Lopes of Atelier Mar, a non-governmental organization that last week held a colloquium on rural development in Porto Novo, the fact that all of this investment is being focused on the cheese from the Planalto Norte is no coincidence. But other traditional products could also take advantage of the attention being given to the Bolona cheese, believes Lopes. Indeed, on Monday, March 12, a group from Slow Food and the Bolona Project visited the village of Salamansa on the island of São Vicente to attend a presentation on traditional fishing methods there. “I think that the fishing methods practiced in Salamansa are another product that have a good possibility of entering the Slow Food network in order to benefit the community and lend value to our fishing.”