Business, / By STA

Bled - The lakeside resort of Bled has launched a new culinary product that it hopes will be embraced by tourists. Apart from its traditional cream cake, the kremšnita, the town will now market a local cheese.

Bled Cheese is a product of a local cooperative, KGZ Gozd Bled, and is made of locally produced milk.

"People are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of local products and are looking for safe food from their community," said Jana Zalokar, the head of KGZ Gozd Bled, adding that this was exactly what they were offering.

A kilo of Bled Cheese will be made out of ten litres of milk and cost 12-13 euro. 25,000 litres of milk a week will be used to make the cheese.

It will be sold at the cooperative shop, at Bled hotels, the castle and the iconic Bled island. An intensive promotion campaign is also planned, the Bled tourism office has announced.

Bled cheese is a semi-hard cheese matured 45-60 days. Stored at a temperature up to 4 degrees Celsius, it can be left to age for another two years, since it does not actually have an expiry date.

It will be sold in wheels of six to seven kilos and in 300-gram packaging.

The cheese is an attempt to connect the popular tourist resort with its agrarian heritage: there used to be several cheese cooperatives in the area, but they collapsed by the early 20th century.

If Bled Cheese catches on, the local cooperative has a few more ideas in store, such as Bled sausage and smoked beef.