National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 107

iqagnn juuuul 1 i I he expansion at home base is just the beginning. In January, Dutra benight a midsized dairy in Sonoma, giving him a toehold in the American eheese industry. Woolwich already sells ot its cheese to the States, and I Intra hopes to boost that to ot total sales ithin years. 1 he mad rush to grow is part ot I Sutra's struggle to protect his lead in a rapidly consolidating business. When he started churning out his lemony sharp cheese back in 1 1)86, the market was wide open.

"Nobody thought about goats, it was an ethnic niche, he recalls. In the past few years, however, what had been a cottage industry ot small dairies has been invaded bv big corporations ranging from domestic plavcrs like Saputo Croup Inc. to foreign exporters. Ten years ago it was all 1 could do to get retailers to believe this stutf would sell." says Dutra. "Now the competition is tierce, and I've got to grow big or stay home." Coat cheese still be a tiny traction of the North American cheese market, but it one ot the fastest-growing segments.

American consumers bought some S200 million worth of goat cheese last year, and supermarket sales are up according to Brad Xumwalt, a food industry consultant at the University ot Nebraska. The approximately 3.S million kilos ot goat cheese produced in Canada in 20(11 constitute only of the total domestic cheese production, but that's up from less than a twentieth ot a Woolwich Dairy employee rolls goat cheese: a long way from mom's artisan methods percent rrn. l.atmg goat cheese is certainly a growing trend as consumers in Canada and the U.S. continue to seek more variety in their says Dav id Surprenant. a dairy market analyst tor Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.

Dutras goat-cheese empire is something ot a cultural inheritance. I he son ot Portuguese immigrants. Dutra was working the assembly line at auto-parts maker Magna International Inc. in the mid 80s when his wife. Olga, a marketing student, convinced him they could parlay his mother's cheese-making hobbv into a business.

Their tiny operation ran into trouble earl v. Art Hill, a food science professor at the L'nivcrsiry ot Cuelph. recalls helping the nov ice cheese-makers after thcyd taken some bad advice on pasteurization and couldnt get the milk to coagulate. "Really. Tony knew nothing about making cheese in those days," savs I lill.

"lies a man who made it on sheer determination." I he Dutras initially sold to Iorontos Portuguese stores, getting up at -t a.m. to make deliveries. I hev realized that, to grow, thev had to get into supermarkets. So at midday thev would drive to Tony's aunt's house, change into business attire and meet with buyers armed with samples. "It wasnt a taste people knew, you really had to convince them." Dutra savs.

By 19K9. he reckons he was in about 30 supermarkets in the loronto area when his competition, the Woolwich Dairy, came up tor sale. I he operation was more than twice the size ot his ow n. making SO, 000 kilos ot cheese annually and grossing about SOO.OOO. and he jumped at the chance to buy it.

The timing was right. With supermarkets mov ing to olter a wider range of products. North American palates warming up to international tare and groups ranging horn the lactose-intolerant to the Upper Canada lower Bowel Society touting goat cheeses easier digestibility and other benefits over cows milk, the demand tor goat cheese was ramping up. loday. Woolwich's 36 varieties of goat s-milk cheese, from teta to cheddar to the best-selling chevre, are sold through grocery chains, supermarkets and food service companies across Canada and the U.S..

both under the Woolwich name and private labels. Dutra oversees the operation from his plush Orangeville office, which is dominated bv an enormous photograph of himself, shirtless, holding his newborn daughter. 1 hough he sports the crisp white shirt and tie of the chief executive, his sleeves are rolled back as if at anv moment he might need to thrust a beefy arm into an errant piece ot machinery. A high-school dropout, he clearly relishes an image as a plucky selt-made man. "Show me a problem and I II tlx he says, "but don't give me a book, forget about it." He'll need that resourcefulness these days to navigate the new market currents.

1-or starters, after a decade of increasing the variety ot products, supermarkets are consolidating rheir offerings. 1 hcy're looking for suppliers who can cover a whole range of products, and brand choice is in decline," savs Dutra. That gives the edge to the dairy behemoths, which have been looking to increase their share ot the specialty cheese market. French heavyweights like Bongrain SA and Croupe l.actalis have stepped up their North American goat-cheese production, while foreign imports of goaf cheese to Canada have almost tripled since 1996. Quebec giant Saputo has also moved in, snapping up specialty cheese importer and distributor Iromages Caron Inc.

in 1996, and in 2000 adding Caver JCB Croup one ot the oldest Canadian goat-cheese makers. Coat cheese, which Saputo both imports and produces in Canada, represented less than 1 of the company's sales last vear, but "it's a market that's growing like crazv," savs Saputo deli-division marketing manager Suzette Duguav Samson. "We'd like to increase our Canadian production this year so that the volume 46.