Spain to host this year’s World Cheese Awards in Oviedo

THE Guild of Fine Food has announced that the World Cheese Awards will be held in the Spanish Principality of Asturias this year, taking place in Oviedo on Wednesday November 3.

Having extended Oviedo’s tenure as World Cheese Capital following the event’s postponement as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, the 33rd edition of the competition will now form part of the Asturias Paraíso Natural International Cheese Festival 2021, run by the Instituto del Queso, in partnership with the Principality of Asturias and the City Council of Oviedo.

This will be an opportunity for the global cheese community to come together after a year of unprecedented challenges for cheesemakers and the industry as a whole as the World Cheese Awards will be at the heart of a four-day festival dedicated only to cheese.

The competition is set to be bigger and more international than ever before, following the record-breaking 3,804 entries from 42 different countries judged in Bergamo, Italy in 2019.

According to a US Department of Agriculture report, Spain exported $593 million (€492.5 million) in 2020, mainly to Europe but around 20 per cent went to other countries and with some 100 different types of cheese produced in the country the industry uses up around 28 per cent of Spain’s milk production.

John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, commented: “Following the trials and tribulations of the past 12 months, we’re delighted to be making plans for the World Cheese Awards’ return to Spain. The cheese world has felt the economic impact of Covid-19 in a big way, so this year’s competition holds greater significance than ever before.”