New Mexico Company Captures "Worlds' Best Cheese" Title
Southwest Cheese Company LLC of Clovis/Curry County became the “big cheese” of the dairy world by capturing the gold medal for best Monterey Jack at the 27th Biennial World Championship Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin. They defeated 26 other cheese makers, also capturing third place in the division. Southwest Cheese narrowly missed out on another medal, finishing fourth in the Colby category. The 2008 edition of the largest cheese contest in the world was held in March and attracted cheese makers from all corners of the globe
Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Fred Mondragón welcomed the victory. “Congratulations to Southwest Cheese on this extraordinary – and delicious – honor. We are very proud to have them in New Mexico.”
Ernie Kos, the Executive Director of the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce, stated, “We are extremely proud that the worlds’ best Monterey Jack cheese is made in Clovis, New Mexico.” She added, “It is a great international recognition for the entire community and we are very proud of everyone at Southwest Cheese for ‘Turning Cheese into Gold”.
Southwest Cheese is one of the worlds’ largest high-quality cheese manufacturers. Established in 2006 as a joint venture between Glanbia plc and the Greater Southwest Agency, Inc., the business operates two separate state-of-the-art cheese and whey production facilities. Over 280 million pounds of cheese is produced each year and Southwest Cheese is projected to meet their goal of $400 million in worldwide sales.