Chone tries to boost his cheese production; the brake is put by the lack of credits

Chone, Manabi

Five years ago, Jhon Mendoza Giler decided to make cheeses to sell in his Convento parish commissariat, located 60 km from Chone, the cantonal capital. To make his product, he decided to take the traditional recipe of his grandparents.

It started with a small production of 40 liters of milk. His product was consolidated in his parish and neighboring places. His cheese now reaches markets in Guayaquil, Manta and Portoviejo.

It currently processes 5,000 liters of milk per day, which allows it to produce 15 quintals of cheese. Mendoza says that his cheese goes through a delicate and careful process. “The manufacturing secrets are unique, each family adds a touch of flavor, and here is no exception. It would seem that everyone competes to make it more delicious”, he maintains.

Convento, which rises 568 meters above sea level and is in the highest part of the Manta Blanca mountain range, is one of the centers of cheese production. Boris Zambrano Cabrera, an agricultural consultant, says that two years ago a study was carried out on the product that comes out of Convento and its surrounding areas. There it was determined that weekly about a thousand quintals of cheese leave that parish.

Ranchers and merchants in the area have tried to take advantage of the milk production to be able to generate their own products. However, the lack of soft loans, according to leaders, slows down new ventures.

Chone has a total area of ​​305,389.11 ha, which is mainly covered by cultivated pastures with 53.52% of the total cantonal area.

Milk is the main livestock product in the canton. For this production there is an area of ​​207,365 hectares of pasture, occupying 67.9% of the total cantonal area.

Byron Corral, president of Corpogam, points out that 60% of the milk production of parishes, such as Convento, is destined for cheese and derivatives; the remaining percentage is sold to companies that process the product and another part is sold to the public that consumes this food.

Raw milk cheese is the predominant one, and it is the most sold. Corral maintains that the lack of culture to start in this dairy business is another drawback.

From the Convent products go to cantons such as El Carmen, Pedernales, Flavio Alfaro, Jama and the San Isidro parish.

Entrepreneurs who make cheese are trying to improve their processes. To make the chonero cheese, sanitary measures must be taken, among them, that the straps and the container are made of stainless steel. In the process, it is sought that the area has all the hygienic conditions.

Despite the difficulties brought by the pandemic, the products seek a way to place their products in associativity. On Colón and Malecón streets is the Café Club de Emprendedores, where 33 members of the ProChone cooperative work and sell their products. They offer cheese, cottage cheese, butter, eggnog, mistelas, chocolate, yogurt, jam, delicacy, custard, honey, among other items.

“I come every month from Guayaquil to visit my family and I carry several of these products. This is an excellent idea, and this is how groups of people and entrepreneurs should unite to carry out their products”, mentions Romer Zambrano, a client from Chon who has lived in the city of Buenos Aires for more than 40 years.

Mariela Vera, a member of this cooperative, believes that the difficulties caused by this emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic constitute an opportunity to improve.

“The people who have not stopped are our people from the countryside, our producers. In short, consume what is ours, because we have very good quality products”, she expresses.

Vera says that the products are being purchased from various parts of the country. “We started with few products and have expanded and diversified the offer,” she says.

Chone, who has some 300,000 cattle, has challenges. Rancher José Pablo Zambrano maintains that several of these are in the regenerative part, the one that seeks to recover the soil, due to the mismanagement that has occurred in the last 100 years due to deforestation, burning, the use of chemicals and the misuse of grazing. Many ranchers, he says, are trying to recover cheaply. (I)