In Aleksandrovac in the municipality of Laktasi, the Cooperative Association (ZZ) Livac was founded in 2006, the initiator of which is one of the founders of the Caritas Diocese of Banja Luka. In this Cooperative, according to the original recipe, which very few people in the world know, the widely known Trappist cheese is produced, which was once produced in the Mariastern Abbey in Banja Luka.
This is one of the projects of Caritas, with the aim of creating new jobs and employing the population, as well as the development and improvement of livestock production.
From the beginning of the farm, the idea of milk processing and the renewal of production of Trappist cheese according to the original recipe grew. The former production of Trappist cheese in the Mariastern Abbey was started in 1882, and later it was moved to Windthorst, today’s Nova Topola and Josipovac or today’s Aleksandrovac. After the Second World War and under the new communist rule, almost all Trappist properties were confiscated and everything that the Trappists had created was destroyed. The name Trappist was used without authorization by various dairies. However, no one managed to get the secret of this cheese,” said Drazenko Budimir, director of ZZ Livac.
Increase in production and export
“In 2007, Father Tomislav Topic went to France to a monastery, where the recipe for the original Trappist cheese once came from. At the same time, and with the help of the German government and Renovabis, a modern cheese factory is being built in which all safety standards are respected but also satisfies the traditional way of cheese production. At the beginning of 2008, the cheese factory was completed, and trial production began on July 10th, 2008 with 500 liters of milk, and we introduced the ISO 9001 and HACCP standards,” explains Budimir and adds that part of the profit from the sale of cheese goes to the needs of the Mariastern Abbey community.
Today, around two to two and a half tons of cheese are produced per month, with the aim of increasing capacity, and the cheese is sold throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and exported to Croatia and Sweden.
“The cheese was also exported to Italy, and this is the only time that cheeses from these areas were exported to the Italian market since we mainly import their cheeses. An agreement was made to export to Japan, but due to the lack of an agreement between BiH and Japan, we could not realize this work,” says the director of ZZ Livac.
Numerous international awards
The cheese received numerous awards at various events where it appeared, such as a large gold medal at the Agricultural Fair in Novi Sad in 2009, the most attractive eco-ethnic product at the Eco-Ethno Fair in Zagreb 2009, the quality champion at the Agricultural Fair in Novi Sad in 2010, first place as judged by visitors at the Zabok Cheese Fair in 2010, champion in the category of hard and semi-hard cheeses at the Grubisno Polje Cheese Fair in 2010, gold and large gold medals from the Agricultural Fair in Novi Sad in 2017, and many other awards.
“With the increase in milk production and the possibility of export, our goal is to reach the production of five tons of cheese per month. In addition to the original Trappist cheese, we also started producing hard cheeses, and we are planning to introduce new products. We also produce ricotta cheese for the domestic market,” Budimir concluded, Akta reports.
E. Dz.
