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How one man went from manufacturing pipes to making the most coveted cheese in town

How one man went from manufacturing pipes to making the most coveted cheese in town

Imran Saleh, founder of Farmer’s Cheese, sells cheese to small businesses, urban food snobs and foreign diplomats
Updated 17 Aug, 2016

ISLAMABAD: I knocked on the gate of a guesthouse in the G-6 sector of Islamabad. After what turned into rapping and thumping, the gatekeeper approached leisurely, finally opening the door. “I am here for cheese,” I said, and he beckoned me to enter. Inside, I met the cheesemaker.

It is through such encounters that Pakistan’s affluent gain and trade in knowledge on where to get the best of something ‘over here’. I remember a baker who made delicious dinner rolls in Karachi’s now half-demolished Metropole Hotel. Imran Saleh, the founder of Farmer’s Cheese, falls into this category of secret food purveyors. He travels from Lahore to Islamabad and Karachi and with the assistance of two business partners; he sells cheese to small businesses, urban food snobs and foreign diplomats. Fascinated by his story I travelled to Lahore to find out more.

“Everything changed a decade ago,” said Mr Saleh. He was running a trading company supplying air ducts to textile plants. “I had a pipe supplier and one day some big guns came and started buying out all the pipes so I was left with no supplier,” he recalled. “So I decided to make a machine [to make pipes] myself, even though I am not an engineer.”

Trying to build an industrial-grade pipe-making machine turned out to be a frustrating challenge that took over three years to materialise. Around the same time, Mr Saleh saw a television programme about cheesemaking: “I decided to try it out as a hobby,” he explained.

It was love at first knead. Like all passionate affairs, there were complications and accidents, but this only made the cheese better. “I used to follow the recipes but the cheese was not good,” he said.

“One day I had an accident…it helped me understand that there is more to making cheese than what is in the recipe,” he added.

Mr Saleh started in his own home kitchen — where he took me and showed off his professional pizza oven — and later moved operations to a small storage space in the backyard.

Mr Saleh had not yet explored cheesemaking as a business venture — what he produced was eaten at home and used on pizzas he made when hosting friends and family. Things changed when he was invited to open a stall at a Lahore farmers’ market.

Mr Saleh's cheese-making hobby soon flourished into a popular business
Mr Saleh's cheese-making hobby soon flourished into a popular business

The result surprised him: “Whatever I had made, I took it over there and it was sold within a couple hours so that was very encouraging,” he said. It was after this success that he decided to expand his workspace to a commercial site in Lahore’s Valencia Town.

“But even at that time I was not thinking of it as a business but more as doing something that people are appreciating and also because I enjoyed it,” he added.

Just as Mr Saleh’s cheesemaking was coming together, the pipe-making machine he built also turned into a success. His business has since grown and he now exports industrial-grade pipes to the Middle East out of a small room next to his cheese shop.

Washed rind cheese (left) and cottage cheese with herbs and peppers (right) made at Farmer's Cheese
Washed rind cheese (left) and cottage cheese with herbs and peppers (right) made at Farmer's Cheese

Working with his hands and building everything from scratch seems to be a theme with Mr Saleh: “I made the equipment myself,” he says, pointing to the cheesemaking vats in his production room. “It’s customised and I am thinking of making professional equipment for other cheesemakers.”

Mr Saleh would love to see cheese become his only business. “That is the goal. This is my passion, so the quality is very important. It’s not just a business for me,” he said.

It is a dream he only thought possible two years ago. “I was selling cheese in Islamabad for the first time at Gia’s Deli,” he recalled. “In one day, right before my eyes, all the cheese was sold. That’s when I knew that this was possible,” he added.

What would it feel like to be able to do what one loves for a living, I ask him: “This is everything,” he responds. “It is what you live for.”

Today, mistakes and accidents still happen and Mr Saleh stresses that they can be very costly. “I am making cheese in such large quantities so a lot of milk is lost if we make any mistakes.” But he also insists that these are still learning experiences. “One client of mine asked me to make buratta which is mozzarella with cream in the centre,” he says.

“It used to burst in my hand…. In the time it took to make two kilogrammes of buratta, I could make 100kg of mozzarella,” he added.

But Mr Saleh persisted and continued making burratta, even after his client stopped ordering it. “Now I make a very good buratta,” he said with a proud smile on his face.

So what does the future hold for Farmer’s Cheese? “I would like to open production centres in Islamabad and Karachi.” But he is careful to stress that these facilities would only make mozzarella, focusing on one product and doing that well.

“The hard cheese I will make myself in Lahore,” he added. Despite the inclination to grow his business, Mr Saleh’s passion will always stay close to home.


Originally published in Dawn, August 17th, 2016

Comments

idea Aug 17, 2016 11:15am
It would have been nice if he had used hand gloves :) Just basic Hygiene.
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Anees Aug 17, 2016 11:27am
An excellent example of 'can do' attitude. Well done Mr Saleh.
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Faizan Aug 17, 2016 11:47am
Great to see such passion and innovation. Congratulations to Mr Saleh on his success. Keep going !!
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Umer Aug 17, 2016 11:55am
Maa Shaa Allah, may you have more succcess.
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M. Omar Aug 17, 2016 11:57am
Love cheese.
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Ranbeer, India Aug 17, 2016 12:07pm
This is wonderful! I never imagined that someone in the subcontinent is producing buratta which is incredibly complex to get right! Can we please get more articles like this celebrating the unsung food heroes of Pakistan.
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N K Ali Aug 17, 2016 12:11pm
DAWN...I love cheese and look for Pakistani brands. Now InshAllah eat Farmers Cheese. Thanx a lot. Salams to you and Imran Saleh. Hurry up, hurry up! Open your centers in Karachi.
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Ali Muhammad Aug 17, 2016 12:17pm
Great Man... Where is his place though?? Where can one go and purchase his cheese besides Gia's Deli????
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Ali Muhammad Aug 17, 2016 12:20pm
Also, how does he make that Curd for Mozzarella? Rennet? Or is there any alternate to that? If not, from where does he get his Rennet?
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Ali Muhammad Aug 17, 2016 12:21pm
In fact, I would love to get in contact with this person....
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zia Aug 17, 2016 12:33pm
@idea No body even in USA wear gloves when they handle cheese. It like grounding grapes with your feet when making wine its a centuries old tradition.
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Qasim Shaikh Aug 17, 2016 12:49pm
@Ali Muhammad we can supply halal rennet for cheese making
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Gulshan Rashid Aug 17, 2016 01:04pm
Come to Karachi with your cheese please. I love cheese.
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Naveed Aug 17, 2016 01:09pm
Say cheese, with a big smile and laugh all the way to the bank! Wonderful venture!
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SAEED MASOOD Aug 17, 2016 01:13pm
May God give you real success and high standards for your cheese. I travel a lot and see Turkish Cheese worth millions of dollars all over, visit the cheese industry of Turkey for guidance.
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Parvez Aug 17, 2016 01:34pm
The cheese market has hardly been dented in Pakistan.......he will flourish beyond his wildest expectations because he seems to know exactly what he's about.
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asad Aug 17, 2016 01:45pm
In Europe, everybody eats cheese, in Pakistan its only available to foreign diplomats and elite class. I hope many more people will learn how to make cheese and one day it will be available to everybody in Pakistan. Pakistan is 5th largest milk producer in the world so there is huge potential of cheese export.
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ishrat salim Aug 17, 2016 02:11pm
Salute...but if you could make low fat cottage cheese, the most nutritious of all cheese, let me know. at isalim18@gmail.com.
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Ali Aug 17, 2016 02:23pm
Keep it up Mr Saleh. It's a very heart warming story. Wish you all the best and it would be nice to sample your cheese in the Middle East.
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Khalid Aug 17, 2016 02:51pm
Fantastic! wish you even more success!
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Shah Aug 17, 2016 03:47pm
I am a huge fan of their cheese. At par if not better than what I was used to in the USA. Well done and best wishes!
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Tamilsrlvan Aug 17, 2016 04:00pm
Sir, make a trip to India and visit a Sardarji who is making mozeralla cheese and exporting them to Italy on a large scale. The key ingredient for mozeralla cheese is buffalo milk and the climate in sub continent helps them survive. In California they imported the buffolos but they did not survive. Congratulations on your success
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Amer Rao Aug 17, 2016 04:27pm
Congratulations, and wish you all the best.
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Pakistan Zindabad Aug 17, 2016 06:39pm
Bravo... Maestro.... Genius.... Hard worker.... Passionate.... etc etc...
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Omer Aug 17, 2016 06:44pm
Excellent narration and captivating subject
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Agha Ata Aug 18, 2016 12:29am
I have been out of the country for 25 years and what I know is that Pakistanis did not eat cheese at all. I am glad they like it now. I remember that in India when the British came Indians-milk sellers drank lassi with great pride, but sold butter to the British, but later did realize the benefits of butter.
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Maestro Aug 18, 2016 08:03am
All the best to you Mr Saleh
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iqbal carrim Aug 18, 2016 12:31pm
How about exporting it to Mauritius ?The product lookstempting.
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Shahid Javaid Aug 19, 2016 05:13pm
Good and hard work pays. Plus I have lived in Istanbul and you know how the Turkish love Cheese both cottage and the hard yellow big round loaf of cheese. hpow I can get this in Karachi.
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Hafiza wadiwala Aug 21, 2016 11:49pm
Well done Mr.Saleh. Your passion encourages new comers
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Lotus Aug 23, 2016 12:20pm
Best of luck,Mr Saleh.From the definition of a Genius coined by Edison,one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration.You are a definitely a Genius.Keep it up and earn some good name and foreign exchange for Pakistan!
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