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In the south of the country, the first itineraries are being prepared that will connect inns, stables, dairies with similar stations in Greece, a joint initiative that highlights the local cheese culture and shares it with visitors.
Afrati has 50 years of experience in cheese production. According to him, the need to protect tradition goes alongside the need to know each other. He shared with the Greek producers who visited the region the concern of the reduction of heads and pastures, the shrinking of the tradition of shepherds, and as a result the ever-smaller amounts of milk, which can cause cheese to fade its presence in our lives if we do not intervene to save him.
The culinary and food researcher at the same time, the well-known television presenter of cooking programs, Ilias Mamalakis, said from Gjirokastra that the Balkans is heading towards the gradual loss of cheese culture and that now in Greece they have lost at least 3 types, just as in Albania the sauce skullit is increasingly rare.
“Cheese is part of our life and your life. If the French or other Europeans consume cheese at the end of the main meal, we have cheese present at every meal and all the time. We eat cheese with vegetables, with fresh bread, with grapes and tomatoes. To us, a sandwich without cheese makes no sense. I have tried rare tastes of cheese in Albania and I am surprised. Despite the different flavors of cheese, we are together today to promote something from our lives that is being threatened in both countries”.
Greek and Albanian researchers are working together to analyze all parameters of dairy taste related to indigenous breeds of cattle, feed, pastures, steps towards product branding.
“We are examining the dairy samples taken in the laboratory for about 18 types of cheese that we found in Greece and at least 6 here in South Albania. Innovation in science can now help to more clearly define the local identity of the cheese and highlight the specific brand for visitors. Our regions are still authentic. We don’t have multi-million dollar cities, but small local communities that could live by sharing this culture of their lives with visitors, thus saving a thousand-year-old tradition.” says Prof. Ioannis Skoufos, head of the Department of Agriculture at the University of Ioannina.
Over 50 cheese-based recipes from both countries can be enjoyed along the cheese route, the first thematic tourist route that will cross Albania and Greece.
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