Image: @plantbasedcheese/ Instagram
Willicroft has become Amsterdam’s first vegan cheese shop and will offer a range of healthy, tasty cashew and tofu-based cheeses.
Plant-based company Willicroft is the first vegan cheese shop in the Netherlands and is located in south-west Amsterdam.
The company came into existence after founder Brad Vanstone, who turned vegan in 2017, couldn’t find suitable alternatives to cheese.
Vanstone grew up in Devon, UK, where his grandparents ran the Willicroft dairy farm.
He founded Willicroft to not only produce dairy alternatives, but to also address “the greatest issues facing humanity today – the warming of our planet,” as per the company’s website.
The shop currently stocks five own-brand nondairy cheeses. Apart from cheese, the brand also offers two cashew-based cheese sauces for cooking, a tofu-based cream cheese, and cashew parmesan.
The company even sells a cashew-based vegan cheese fondue, a veganized version of cheese fondue – an extremely popular dish in the Netherlands.
The store also stocks products from local vegan cheesemakers and several organic and vegan-friendly wines.
Vanstone also plans to operate a small café selling local and fresh items within the store.
While Willicroft only sells in The Netherlands, the founder plans to expand to the UK and the US in 2020.
Dairy decline
Demand for dairy and its products have been steadily declining as more and more consumers opt for non-dairy alternatives for health, environment and animal safety.
In the US, dairy milk sales plummeted by $1.1 billion last year, while demand for plant-based milk has surged by 61 percent since 2012.
The USDA reported that licensed dairy farms reduced form 40,199 last year to about 37,468 dairy farms this year.
A survey by National Dairy Farmer has indicated that about 6 percent of dairy farmers were looking to quit the industry within the next two years due to huge losses.
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