Cheese futures to bolster dairies

WASILLA — A trio of gold mining companies have stepped in to purchase another traditionally gold-colored commodity — cheddar cheese.

The companies have bought $75,000 in “cheese futures” — cheese to be paid for now but delivered after a nascent Mat-Su Valley-based dairy starts producing cheese, said Kyle Beus, who owns the creamery with Alaska Farmers and Stockgrowers Inc. president and Mat-Su Borough Assemblyman Robert Wells.

Beus, who is setting up the all-local-milk creamery on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway near Trunk Road, said $16,000 of the $75,000 went to the dairy.

“The bulk of that money went to the farms to help save the cowherds,” Beus said.

The three dairy farmers in the Southcentral region have been sending roughly half their milk to a dairy in Delta Junction and the other half has had no place to go since the state-run Matanuska Maid Dairy closed in mid-December, according to a press release from Alaska Farmers and Stockgrowers Inc., which facilitated the mining companies’ purchases of cheese futures.

NovaGold Resources Inc., Barrick Gold Corp. and Fairbanks Gold Mining Inc. each reportedly bought $25,000 in cheese futures.

“It’s just basically Alaskans helping Alaskans, one resource company helping another resource company,” said Rhylin Bailie, who manages investor relations for NovaGold Resources Inc.

Beus said the cheese the companies purchased will, in turn, be donated to charities of the companies’ choosing. In a prepared release, Alaska Farmers and Stockgrowers Inc. lays out its plan for the cheese futures.

“The cheese must be aged at least 60 days and won't be available for delivery until the spring,” it says. “Payment is asked up front, however, so that the farmers can be paid for their milk on an ongoing basis.”

The statement offers up three different packages of cheese futures for sale to the general public — 2 pounds of cheddar and a cheese futures certificate for $30, 6 pounds and an Alaskan birch cheese knife for $90 and 10 pounds and an Alaskan birch or greenstone cutting board for $150.

The statement mentioned that corporations can set up different configurations for bulk cheese purchases.

Neither Wells nor Alaska Farmers and Stockgrowers Inc. secretary Karen Olson, listed as a contact person in the release, could be reached for comment late Monday.

Beus said he can’t speak to a specific date for when the dairy will be up and running. Beus said he’s finishing up work to prepare the facility to have the dairy equipment installed Wednesday. By mid-March he hopes to be producing cheese, which will first take care of commitments the dairy has to the mining company and others.

In April, Beus said he hopes to be producing fluid milk and ice cream. He said the facility will have a storefront where people can buy dairy products and a window to watch the production process.

The cheese futures are “seen as a once-only opportunity, since the volume of milk available to be made into cheese is expected to drop sharply once fluid milk processing begins,” the Alaska Farmers and Stockgrowers Inc. reports.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.