SUMMERSIDE – Island cheesemakers will use the winnings from a recent contest towards their goal of building their own cheese-making plant.
Gabriel and Deirdre Mercier won the $10,000 championship prize in the RDÉE Prince Edward Island’s 2018 Dragons’ Contest recently. The prize money will go towards the construction of a sheep cheese production plant on their Isle Saint-Jean Farm in North Rustico.
The cheque from contest sponsor, Innovation P.E.I., was presented to the Merciers at the contest finale held jointly with the Acadian Entrepreneurs’ Gala at the Centre Belle-Alliance in Summerside.
Gabriel Mercier’s grandfather was a master cheesemaker in Quebec, a passion he passed down to his grandson.
Mercier and his wife set up their North Rustico business in 2015 to start producing sheep milk, with the intention of building their own cheese-making plant.
In the meantime, the Merciers negotiated a deal with Mathieu Gallant’s Island Artisan Cheesehouse in Mont-Carmel to use his plant to process their milk into cheese and yogurt.
After gaining a couple of years of experience and having established a solid clientele with a number of high-end restaurants and specialized shops, the Merciers developed the production plant’s construction plans and hope to build this year.
In his presentation, Gabriel explained that sheep milk gives a better cheese yield, compared to cows’ milk. It also contains more calcium, vitamins and minerals and is easier to digest.
The cheesemakers are shooting at both a local and tourism market, and to people seeking healthier food products.
The competition’s two other finalists included Summerside’s Stéphanie St-Onge-Cornish, who presented a project for the expansion of her podology centre, Blossom Foot Care, and Charlottetown’s Sylvain Gagné, who presented a project for the addition of a fresh blueberry processing plant to his Gagné Blueberries operation.
Before an audience of more than 100, the contestants gave seven-minute presentations before the judges, then answered the judges’ questions.
Contest co-ordinator Velma Robichaud said, “After the three magnificent presentations, it was absolutely impossible to predict who the judges were going to pick since all three contestants showed great strengths, as much in their prepared presentations as in their off-the-cuff answers.”
Along with the $10,000 investment, the winners received a free one-year membership to the Summerside and Charlottetown Chambers of Commerce, and the three finalists get a free membership to the Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of P.E.I.
In addition to building their new cheese house, the Merciers are looking to increase both their production and sales and to hire additional staff in the short-term. In the long-term, they would like to export and train other producers. Their financial projections also show respectable increases in both sales and profits.
