P.E.I.'s ADL wins big at international cheese competition

ADL, P.E.I.'s largest dairy,won some significant hardware at the 88th annual British Empire Cheese Show in Belleville, Ontario in mid-November.

The show is Canada's oldest display and competition for Canadian and international cheese, attended by cheesemakers, industry representatives, suppliers and buyers from across Canada.

"We've been very proud of our cheese," said Chad Mann, business development manager at ADL.

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"With the amount of categories we placed in, we were a little bit surprised," he said.

"It's a testament to the hard work and dedication by our cheesemakers and production staff."

ADL won or placed the podium in six of the eight classes it entered, taking home first place for its Dairy Isle medium colouredcheddar.

But Mann said those awards won't just gather dust in a showcase.

The company, which processes 95 per cent of the Island's dairy production, is launching a new product line called Dairy Isle it hopes will give the company more national exposure.ADL already exports 85 per cent of its cheese, butter and ice cream off-Island, most of that is under other labels.

"With the awards we've been getting over the years, we want to take our cheese outside the Island, into the Maritimes, possibly Ontario and west," said Mann.

He said that's why the cheeses it submitted to the Belleville awards show were all under the Dairy Isle brand.

ADL has annual sales of $150 million a year.