The Government of Castilla-La Mancha has emphasized the role of Manchego cheese as "one of our greatest ambassadors" thanks to its recognized prestige inside and outside Spain, highlighting it as one of the "great engines" of the international projection of the regional agri-food industry and as "one of the products that best project the image of our region abroad".
These considerations have been expressed by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Julián Martínez Lizán, during the visit that the regional president, Emiliano García-Page, has made this Friday to the facilities of the company Spanish Cheese. The tour also included the plant manager, José Antonio Pérez, the president of the Diputación, Santiago Cabañero, and the delegate of the Junta, Pedro Antonio Ruíz Santos, as the regional Executive has conveyed in a statement.
The minister has pointed out that the DOP Queso Manchego concentrates more than half of the total commercial value of all quality cheeses in the country and that practically 78% of its production is sold abroad, in numerous international markets. This leadership places it as the most valuable designation of origin in Spain and as a symbol of "quality, excellence and competitiveness".
Along these lines, Julián Martínez Lizán has stressed that, for the regional Executive, foods with a quality mark constitute a "bulwark that takes the name of our region around the world". To continue boosting this type of product, he has advanced that the approving resolutions intended to support the promotion of agri-food foods covered by quality figures have already been sent, through aid totaling 1.4 million euros up to 2027.
The relevance of Spanish Cheese in the cheese sector
Regarding Spanish Cheese, the minister has highlighted the evolution of the company from 2002 to the present day, a stage in which "it has shown unstoppable growth". "In addition, in the last four years it has doubled its production and commercialization capacity," he said, underscoring the firm’s quantitative and qualitative leap.
This progress confirms that it is one of the companies "for which we feel tremendous pride as a region already plays a fundamental role in spreading the great agri-food products we have in Castilla La Mancha, in this case linked to cheese".
In the same way, it has also pointed out that the company’s track record—"which represents very well what we want for our agri-food sector, which is growth, innovation, added value and internationalization." What began as a company focused on distribution has transformed into a modern industry, capable of adjusting its offering to the new requirements of consumers and consolidating its presence in more than sixty countries.
Martínez Lizán has also emphasized that the company’s commitment to R&D has made it possible to develop innovative formulas and recipes for ingredients compatible with cheeses, as well as to generate its own know-how in the technique of cheese injection.
This orientation toward innovation is "what makes them continue moving forward to make the company bigger," and at the same time helps to reinforce the image of Castilla-La Mancha "in its aspect of production, of manufacturing, of transformation and above all of marketing."
The minister has also reiterated the regional Government’s support for the modernization of the agri-food industry through tools such as the Focal grants, which have enabled backing for business improvement projects such as those developed by this company.
To conclude, Julián Martínez Lizán has insisted on the importance of the entire value chain of the cheese sector, from livestock farms and cheese dairies to processing and marketing industries, since it is a key activity for the economy of Castilla-La Mancha, job creation, and the boosting of rural areas.