Pule, the most expensive cheese in the world
A Serbian name, a nature reserve, a few hundred Balkan donkeys and a tiny milk yield: the ingredients of a global reputation.
Where the name comes from
"Pule" is Serbian for a donkey foal. The cheese was popularised by the Zasavica Special Nature Reserve in Vojvodina, northern Serbia, where a herd of Balkan donkeys is kept as part of a programme to preserve the breed. Selling milk and cheese helps fund that programme.
Why the price
The figures quoted in the international press hover around a thousand euros a kilo. That number comes from simple arithmetic rather than from positioning.
- A jenny produces very little Around one litre of milk a day depending on conditions, against twenty to thirty for a dairy cow. Milking happens several times daily and the foal must stay nearby for let-down to occur.
- It takes a lot of milk per kilo Cheese yield is very low: the figure commonly cited is on the order of twenty-five litres of milk for one kilo of cheese.
- The technique is demanding Without enough casein there is no curd. The blend, the temperature and the setting time all have to be controlled to get a paste that holds.
- The herd is small A few hundred animals, only a fraction of them in milk at any given moment. Annual production is counted in tens of kilos.
What we can supply
Dr. Import works with Serbian donkey cheese and follows batch availability. We never promise a volume before the producer has confirmed it: depending on the season, an order may ship within days or take several weeks.
If a seller offers donkey cheese permanently in stock, in large quantities and at a bargain price, be sceptical. That product does not exist in volume.