'Cows, stop producing milk': Monks in France organise emergency cheese sale

An emergency online cheese sale has been announced in a French monastery that is also pleading to their cows not to produce so much milk.

The French monastery, founded in 1908, is famous for selling its raw-milk, semi-soft discs specifically to restaurants and to visitors of its on-site shop. However, the coronavirus pandemic has hit the demand for the product massively.

Now, the monks of the monastery, located in the heart of Burgundy, is struggling to get rid of thousands of cheeses that are stored in the monastery.

"Our sales are down nearly 50%," said brother Jean-Claude, in charge of marketing at the monastery. "We need to clear out our stock."

"We tried explaining to our 75 cows that they needed to produce less milk but they don’t seem to have understood," he laughed.

The drop of 50 per cent in demands has left the monks with nearly 4,000 cheese — a 2.8-tonne problem.

As of now, nearly 700kg of cheese has already been ordered in this emergency online cheese sale, bringing a ray of hope to the monastery. 

"We’re going to make it," the marketing head of the monastery hopes.

To assure successful sale, the monks teamed up with internet startup Divine Box, that has experience in selling products manufactured in abbeys in France and other regions.

The monks are hoping to sell at least a tonne of cheese by Tuesday, with the minimum order being two wheels at £20, plus shipping.