Serbia: where our cheese comes from

A wet plain in northern Serbia, an endangered donkey breed and a conservation programme that pays for itself through milk.

Vojvodina and Zasavica

Northern Serbia is farming country crossed by wetlands. The Zasavica Special Nature Reserve, near Sremska Mitrovica, protects a stretch of marsh and meadow along with several old domestic breeds: the mangalica pig, the Podolian ox and the Balkan donkey.

The Balkan donkey

Small, tough and ash-grey, the Balkan donkey was a pack animal across the region for centuries. Farm mechanisation cut its numbers to the point of rarity. Gathering a herd and putting its milk to use gave the breed an economic reason to exist — and, incidentally, created the world's most expensive cheese.

Milking

Milking a jenny is nothing like milking a cow. Each session yields decilitres rather than litres, it has to be repeated several times a day, and the foal must be present for let-down. The milk is chilled immediately and processed quickly.

From Serbia to Switzerland

Between the dairy and your table, the product passes a documentary and sanitary check, temperature-controlled transport and Swiss customs clearance. We set that journey out on the quality and traceability page.