The Decibel - Who stole half-a-million dollars worth of cheese?

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Neal’s Yard Dairy, a cheese distributor in England, has been an essential part of the artisanal cheddar revival in the United Kingdom. In October 2024, they announced that 22 tonnes of artisanal cheddar — about 300,000 pounds worth, or around CAD$541,000 — had been stolen from them.Paul Waldie is the Globe’s Europe correspondent, based in London. Today, he’s on the show to talk about how this scam unfolded… and why someone might go after cheddar cheese, of all things.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

We may think of cheddar as the most run-of-the-mill cheese. But in England, the birthplace of cheddar cheese, it's part of the national identity. And back in October, there was a big cheddar heist. Now, you're going to think I'm joking, but I'm not. There has been a great cheese robbery. That's British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. The great cheese robbery he's referring to is about 22 tonnes of cheese that was stolen from Neal's Yard Dairy, a UK cheese dealer.

It was worth £300,000, or around $542,000 Canadian dollars. The most widely made cheese on the planet is cheddar. There's only a small handful of real cheddar cheesemakers in the world. And these are some of the cheeses, or most of them, that have got nicked. One of the affected farmers was Tom Calver, the owner of Westcombe Dairy. It's so weird. I mean, I feel kind of like very strange about it. I mean, out of all the stuff to steal, you know, cheddar, like our cheddar, it's almost like it feels like a bit of an honour, really, that it's got such value.

But yeah, the great big cheese heist. Who knew? Paul Waldie is The Globe's Europe correspondent, based in London. Today, Paul is on the show to walk us through how the great cheddar heist unfolded. I'm Mainika Raman-Wilms and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Paul, thanks so much for being here. Glad to. So we're talking about luxury cheddar in this story.

Can you just give us a sense of the kind of cheese that we're talking about luxury cheddar in this story. Can you just give us a sense of the kind of cheese that we're talking about? Well, we're talking about specially made cheddar cheese from Somerset, England, the home of cheddar cheese. And this is the kind of product that you wouldn't find in your normal sort of grocery store shelves. This cheese is made with raw milk. It's aged for up to 18 months, even longer. And the process starts even before then with the kind of grass that's planted for the cows to eat. So it's a really involved process that takes many, many years. Can you tell me a little bit about that process? Like, I'm fascinated by the grass that the cows eat as part of these considerations.

So, yeah, how long does it take to make some of these cheeses? Well, I mean, the grass is very much part of the equation, because that's just about the only ingredient that goes into this cheese, because there's no additives. After the fact, it's really just curdling the milk, and then layering it a whole bunch of time. That's what's that's where the word cheddar comes from. And that some of the way the excess waste seeps out, and you're left with this big brick of usually white cheese. And then they age it for a very long period of time. And that, of course, develops more and more of the flavor. So it's a long process. I was talking to one farmer who was involved in this kind of scam. And he was

saying, you know, he's looking out his window telling me, I've got to figure out what kind of grass I'm going to plant that the cows are going to eat next year. That's going to lead me to make the cheese that's going to age for two more years after that. So, yeah, it's a long, involved process. That's incredible. Okay, so this theft that we're talking about here, this actually happened back in October. And it involved a cheese dealer called Neil's Yard Dairy in London. So just explain for us what what is Neil's Yard? Neil's Yard has been around since 1979. It was started by kind of a former hippie and another guy. They actually wanted to get into the yogurt making business first and then kind of found their way into the cheese business after that.

And they became real advocates of British cheese. They went around to different farms to try and help them develop new products. And they really were at the forefront of getting these kind of artisan cheeses out to the market. They now have three stores in London and they have another dealership that they run out of London as well. And they ship cheese pretty much across the UK, but also around the world. And they really have put Britain's cheddar cheese back on the map or certainly the artisan side of it anyway. Okay. So let's go back to October then when this whole thing

kind of went down. How did this whole cheddar scam start? Well, it started last summer. It started in July or so. You know, Neal's Yard, they, as I mentioned, they sell this cheese all around the world, especially made cheese. And they were at a show in France. They'd met a guy that they dealt with before, a company they dealt with before. And then when they got back, they got an email from somebody who claimed to be representing that company. And they were representing a bunch of retailers

across France. And he wanted to order a bunch of cheese. He wanted to order 22 tons of cheese, which is an awful lot. But, you know, Neil's Yard took the order at face value and went out to different farmers to see if they could fill it. They had to go to three because, of course,

that was such a big amount. Keep in mind that one of the one of the farms that makes this stuff only makes about 90 to 100 tons a year. So 10, which is about 10 percent of their production. So it was a big order. Can I ask you when you say like 22 tons of cheese, like visually, how much cheese are we talking about? Well, it's 950 wheels. And by weight, it would be the equivalent of about three adult elephants at least. So it's a lot of cheese, 950 wheels. You buy these wheels, they're two kilograms or so, or maybe a lot bigger. 950 wheels fills up a couple of van loads. So it was a lot of cheese okay yeah so massive order it sounds like 22 tons but i guess not kind of out of the scope of what's normal like did that

kind of large order raise any flags it was a large order and it probably in hindsight i guess they would argue it should have raised some flags but this is a community this is a community. This is a world. It's a small network. It's a small community. And it deals largely on the basis of trust. People go, you know, they honor each other's word. If you say you're going to do something, you do it. It's not the kind of community that was second guess things. They knew who this guy was representing. They dealt with them before. They weren't so much sure about him, but he knew everything about the cheese world. He spoke their language. So they had no reason to doubt him. And based on the way that, you know, they do their sales in the past and people make orders, they take them at face value and work out the paperwork later. And that's what happened in this case. Okay. So Neil's Yard finds farmers to then fill this order. So which farms does he go to? And can you just break down, I guess, how much cheese are they each contributing here? Well, they went to three farms, one Westcombe provided 10 tons, so about half of the order, and then the other 12 was split between two other farms. And these are, you know, they make really expensive high end cheeses here. This wasn't just

kind of one variety of cheese, it was a whole bunch of different varieties. And you know, pitchfork alone, one wedge of pitchfork can cost you about $20. So this is expensive cheese. This is the kind of cheese that they've had on their shelves in their warehouses aging for 15, 18 months. So the fact is that they didn't have a lot of this on hand because, you know, they're rolling over their inventory all the time. But they did have the 10 tons. Westcombe did, and the others did have the six tons each. So they all managed to pool together what they could to fill this order.

Okay. All right. So they get these three farms ready to fill this order. Then what happens? Well, then what happened was, so Neal's Yard goes back to this guy and everything's all set. They got the order ready to go. They've done some paperwork. They've done the contract. In fairness to Neal's Yard, they looked over everything. Everything looked fine. And again, keep in mind, this is a trust-based industry. So this is not sort of a typical arrangement that a company might make with a stranger they're dealing with or who they thought was not a stranger. So they get the order put together. The person on the other end sends a delivery truck for the first batch that goes out then the second batch the remaining amount neil's yard is told to deliver to a warehouse in north london which

probably should have raised red flags because that was a warehouse they weren't accustomed to dealing with so it was a bit new but then again they took everything at face value and sent the cheese to the warehouse. OK, did they get paid for any of that? What happens next? Well, then they were supposed to get paid for everything. And when they started making phone calls to first to the guy and then to the company that he was representing, the network of retailers, that's when everything fell apart. And the retailer said, look, we've never heard of this guy.

We don't know who you were dealing with. And that's when they found out that they'd been scammed. We'll be right back. So you said, you know, one little wedge of some of this cheese is like 20 bucks. In terms of the monetary value of the 22 tons of cheddar that we've talked about here, Paul, how much is that cheese worth? Well, it was worth about 300,000 pounds, more than 300,000 pounds, over half a million dollars Canadian. Now, the one thing Neal's Yard did is because they've dealt with these farmers so much over the years, they deal with 40 odd farms and different varieties of cheese all the time. They paid them out.

They reimbursed the farmers for all their costs. So they've taken the full hit on this. They went public with it. They went up on Instagram and said, you know, this had happened. The farmer said it had happened. The word spread pretty quickly. The media picked up on it.

And thankfully for Neal's Yard, they've had an awful lot of response since then and an awful lot of people, you know, willing to deal with them and buy their products. So maybe they made up the loss. I don't know. But nonetheless, they they did the right thing by the farmers anyway. Wow. OK. Yeah. So Neal's Yard realizes they've been scammed. They they still compensate the farmers, which which sounds like a positive move in this industry. What did the farmers have to say about all this that happened? Well, I mean, they were stunned. I mean, you know, they thought in a backhanded way,

maybe this is a compliment that somebody would want to steal their cheese or scam Neil's Yard out of their cheese, that it was actually worth that much, you know, like a fine wine or something. But I think the main thing that really hit them, and it goes back to this trust issue, the thing that I talked to one farmer, Tom, about, he was saying that it wasn't so much, yes, the monetary loss was substantial for Neil's yard, and it was a real difficult moment for everybody, but it was the breach of trust that something had been broken that this industry thrives on. It has thrived on for centuries. Again, it's not an industry where you need to have all your paperwork in order and everything done before a deal is done. It's all done by handshakes and word of mouth. And

they felt that something really had been lost and violated through this scam. So obviously, everybody's going to be more careful going forward. But it's they feel it's a shame that they have to be. Yeah. Wow. What was the reaction? I guess I'm just wondering kind of, you know, the broader public in England in particular, what was the reaction to I guess I'm just wondering kind of, you know, the broader public in England in particular, what was the reaction to this kind of theft? Well, it was huge. It got an awful lot of attention here. I mean, keep in mind cheddar cheese, right?

That's England. That's the heart of England. Cheddar, the town of cheddar is in England. Half of the cheese eaten in this country is cheddar. It's a big export. It's a big protected industry in terms of the European Union. So cheddar cheese is a big deal in England. And this was of huge public interest.

Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef, got involved and he put on an Instagram post telling chefs around the world to beware and be on the lookout for this cheese if it pops up anywhere. Other celebrities got involved. As I mentioned, Neil's Yard was inundated with calls of support and calls for help. So were the farmers. So, you know, it caused quite a big, a lot of media attention, not just here, but around the world. Yeah. Well, it does sound like kind of something you wouldn't expect, right? You don't really expect to hear about a cheese theft and especially not something on this scale.

Well, that's it. I mean, you know, the scale was enormous. The way it was done, this wasn't a bunch of people breaking into a warehouse and then loading up a van and driving off with it. This was a sophisticated scam that played out over several months. So somebody went to an awful lot of effort to get this amount of cheese out of Neil's yard. I suppose that's the only way you're going to get 22 tons of cheese is through a scam like this. That's what obviously caught so much of the public attention. Can you tell me a little bit more about kind of the sophistication that must have been

behind this kind of theft? Because it sounds like they really did kind of work the networks that, you know, this is how these deals are usually done. So I guess, how did they get this kind of knowledge? How do they maybe know how to do this? Well, that's the big question right now is who did this and how did they do it? Because, again, you know, we're talking several months here. It was an email. It was conversations. It was contracts. It was a lot of discussion. Because when you make an order this side, even if it is a handshake type of business, you're going to have to work out the details of what kind of cheese, where is it going to go, how are you going to store it, how are you going to transport it, all these kinds of things. And this person had it all worked out down to a T to the fact where, you know, they loaded it onto trucks and sent it off to this warehouse. So clearly this was somebody who really knew what they were doing. Now, I should mention, since this happened, the police have made one arrest. It was a 63 year old man. He was released. So there's been no arrest since then and no information from the police about whether they're any closer to finding out what happened here. We don't even know if it was somebody in Britain who pulled this off or somebody in France who

pulled this off. At this point, there's a lot of questions unanswered. But yeah, this was a very sophisticated operation. When we think about food theft in this way, Paul, how common is it to hear about food on this scale being stolen? It's not uncommon. And I think there's two types of theft that goes on. One is kind of just the random theft of food items that people are just stealing maybe to eat or to make a really quick sale on. But then when you get into this kind of higher end type of product, you're really stealing artwork, fine wine, you know, expensive cheese. It's kind of in the same network of what you're stealing and how you're going to try and get around it. We have seen the makers of Parmesan cheese. They had a seven million dollars worth of cheese stolen a few

years ago. They've gone to the length of actually putting edible chips, microchips in their wheels of cheese so that they can track where they're going. We've seen it in Canada, you know, the maple syrup heist. Not that long ago, that was like $18 million worth of maple syrup. So we have seen these kinds of things before. But I think this is the whole other level where you're stealing something that has real value, like a luxury product. And also, you know, the rarefied cheese market has been growing exponentially in recent years. There's been huge demand for it. Consumers' tastes are changing.

So it's a big market. It's a rising market. And, you know, these guys can charge a fair premium for their product, given the demand that there is out there for it right now. Yeah. Wow. It's interesting. I just think about, you know, how often we've talked in the last couple of years about how expensive food has gotten, just regular groceries. But of course, all food has really inflated in price to an extent. I guess I just wonder if that plays into that, you know, the fact that these things cost so much more now, and I don't know, maybe we're seeing these kind of thefts as I don't not necessarily as a result, but maybe in response to these these high costs. I think to some extent we are I mean, there's two

things, again, that the high cost of food in general is an issue. But this is this is the premium end of the market when this is going up as well, because people are willing to pay a lot to have a cheese platter on New Year's Eve or Christmas or this kind of thing. I think one of the things that's interesting here is that the theory is that this cheese may end up in Russia because Western sanctions have meant that luxury products are harder to get in Russia. So this cheese would have real value if you cut it up and sold it in Russia. So that's one theory of where it might have gone. It also might have gone to the Middle East, where, again, this kind of rare product is worth a lot and you can sell it for a lot. So that's probably what's driving some of this as well. Before I let you go, Paul, I guess I just want to come back to this idea of trust that you brought up earlier

when you're talking about these artisan cheesemakers and how they do business. I guess, yeah, what is a fraud like this due to the sense of trust? It sounds like this is one of these industries where that has been a theme for centuries. And, you know, maybe that's starting to erode. Well, and I think that's the big problem for these farmers. And that's what hurts them the most because they don't deal with an awful lot of people. You know, Neil's Yard is probably one of their biggest buyers for a lot of these farmers. And that's what hurts them the most because they don't deal with an awful lot of people. You know, Neil's Yard is probably one of their biggest buyers for a lot of these guys. And they deal with them all the time on almost a daily basis in terms of sending

them cheese. And Neil's Yard only deals with about 40 odd farmers. So it's a small market. You know, there's not a lot of people making artisan cheese who can make spend 15 months aging one piece of cheese. So it's a very tight community and then but i think from the neil's yard side because the demand is growing they're probably starting to deal with more and more retailers more and more of a global context i think at first most of their product was sold in the uk now it is starting to be sold abroad so they are getting into these buyers who aren't necessarily people they know. And I guess that's where this industry is headed. And, you know, it's a real wake up call for them that they're not going to

be able to operate in this kind of cozy little world that they thought they could. Maybe they're a victim of their own success in a way. Well, Paul, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Glad to. That's it for today. I'm Mainika Raman-Welms. Our producers are Madeline White, Michal Stein, and Allie Graham. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Matt Frainer is our managing editor. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you soon.