The owners of an artisanal cheese retailer in London have responded to the outpour of support their company received following a scam that cost the company 950 wheels of cheese worth £300,000, or about $390,000.
Neal's Yard Dairy delivered 22 tons of cheddar cheese to what they thought was a wholesale distributor for a French retailer. However, the distributer turned out to be the fraudsters who took off with the product, resulting in an investigation being launched by British law enforcement, as reported by The Guardian.
Suppliers to the company that was swindled believe that the cheese is being circulated in Russian and Middle Eastern markets.
Following the theft, the owners of Neal's Yard Dairy have expressed their gratitude for the overwhelming response from the cheese-lover community.
"Clearly British people love their cheese but we have had a lot of really incredible people getting in touch, it seems like it's gone international," owner Sarah Stewart told The Times. "We've had producers that we buy from asking what can they do, can they offer extended terms and financial support, and trade customers saying 'can we pay quicker and what can we do?'"
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver also publicly addressed the incident in an Instagram post to over 10 million followers, encouraging the cheese-lover community to keep an eye out for premium cheese being sold for cheap.
"There has been a great cheese robbery. Some of the best cheddar cheese in the world has been stolen," Oliver said in the video.
Oliver wrote in the caption, "Cheese enthusiasts are advised to be wary of suspiciously large quantities of premium Cheddar on the black market. Remember, if the deal seems too gouda to be true, it probably is! Let's find these cheese stealers."
Tom Calver, director of a supplier that supplied some of the stolen cheese, told The Guardian that they have been trying to support Neal's by promoting them. He told the outlet, "It is a huge, very difficult loss."
"What worries me is the trust element in things," added Calver, whose company was still paid by Neal's Yard Dairy. "At the end of the day what we need to have is more trust in the food supply system rather than less of it."
A spokesperson for Metropolitan Police told The Guardian, "On Monday October 21, we received a report of the theft of a large quantity of cheese from a manufacturer based in Southwark. Inquiries are ongoing into the circumstances. There has been no arrest."
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