Gastronomy: the cow that laughs gondolates in Africa ·Global Voices
Established for more than fifty years on the continent, the French brand La Vache qui rit has made itself indispensable thanks to a nourishing product, easy to preserve and inexpensive. The love story is not just a matter of taste.
She's everywhere. In the shelves of large supermarkets where it knocks out the competition with a hoof, in groceries revamped in the colors of the brand, spread out on toast or pancakes in small stalls, offered by the portion by street vendors up to in schools… She is obviously The Laughing Cow. The funny crimson and hilarious bovid has made the French group Bel the first cheesemaker in Africa.
The figures make you dizzy: in 2015, Bel marketed its products in 44 African countries, generated 338 million euros in turnover there and employed no less than 3,500 people on site, i.e. nearly 30 % of its total workforce. The Laughing Cow is certainly not the only dairy food marketed by the giant of the cheese industry: there is also Kiri or local variations such as the Les Enfants brand, in Morocco.
But the weight of the bovid remains crushing. And the brand, so appreciated that it is regularly counterfeited or imitated. A Tangier company, Fromalim, even put La Vache bonheur, then La Vache aimee on the shelves – these and their big sister look alike like two drops of milk.
Algeria, the world's leading market
How can the success of the horned beast be explained? First of all, it has been established for a long time on the continent. Created in France in 1921, quickly marketed in Great Britain, it made its first kicks in the Maghreb more than fifty years ago. Cans were sold in Morocco in the early 1970s and were sufficiently popular to lead to the creation of a Bel factory in 1977 in Tangiers, at a time when Bel was alone in the consumer cheese fondue niche in the country.
This manufacturing unit is today the largest internationally present… knowing that sixteen factories exist in the world, from Vietnam to Portugal via Turkey. In 1998, Bel set up in Cairo; in 2002, in Algiers;
Algeria is currently the largest global market for The Laughing Cow, ahead of Morocco. But if we focus on sub-Saharan Africa, Senegal is the leading contributor in terms of sales volumes, with nearly 150 wholesalers selling portions in Dakar and in the provinces.
A different recipe depending on the country
The product can be eaten both in homes and in the depths of the desert, because the portions keep particularly well. During packaging, the cheese paste is poured while still hot into an aluminum shell; a “cover” is then placed and welded under the effect of heat.
The packaging, with a thickness of 6 microns (ten times less than that of a conventional sheet of paper), is sufficient to preserve the vitamins and mineral salts sensitive to light, oxygen and drying out . According to Eric de Poncins, General Manager Development and Foresight: "Portions can be stored for up to twelve months without a refrigerator. Another packaging tip: on the boxes, a scratched adhesive strip guarantees the inviolability of the product.
If the ruminant is a hit, it is also thanks to its nutritional properties..., which allows us to come back to a myth. No, the product is not made from cheese rinds! This is at least what we learn when visiting the Laughing Cow House, in Lons-le-Saunier, located on the former manufacturing site of the first portions, in Franche-Comté, in the east of the France.
The recipe, carefully kept secret, is a mixture of pressed cheeses (Emmental, Gouda, Edam, Cheddar), milk, butter, milk powder, melting salts (polyphosphates) and acid citric to correct acidity. But, above all, the recipe differs from one market to another!
The nutritional argument
“Across the African continent, portions are reinforced with calcium, vitamin D and iron, reveals Laurent Bourdereau, director of the Maison de la Vache qui rit. The nutritional argument is strong. When we traveled to Dakar for the purposes of an exhibition, we met mothers who bought it to promote the growth of their children, but also elderly people who ate it daily to strengthen their bones. »
Many events are organized in schools to educate children, parents... and future consumers. "I saw establishments in which the group organized songs, dances with nearly 500 students, workshops to learn how to balance a meal...", notes Laurent Bourdereau.
Through its corporate foundation, the Bel group is financially supporting SOS Sahel, an NGO seeking to improve food and nutritional security in rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, to the tune of 25,000 euros. First concerned: children, pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Development in sub-Saharan Africa
Last asset of La Vache qui rit : it is also sold in Africa by the portion in small shops, in cafes, on the markets, presenting the advantage of being able to quickly benefit from the product for a modest sum, about fifteen euro cents at most. In Europe or America, this method of consumption is marginal, but in Africa, of the 12 billion Laughing Cow servings (70,000 t) sold in 2012, a quarter were sold individually. And the figure naturally tends to increase since the brand is betting on street vendors.
The establishment of a micro-factory in Abidjan, in December 2015, capable of producing 100,000 portions per day, proves that the Bel group, already very present in the Maghreb, now intends to develop a little more in Africa sub-Saharan. The French company has posted growth rates of 8% on the continent in recent years... Its emblematic cow has not finished mooing with pleasure in Africa.
The Arty cow
Imagine the Saint-Louis fishermen's canoes redesigned by a French graphic designer, Valérie Besser, discreetly taking up the visual codes of the bovine brand. Further on, paintings on glass and graffiti by the young Senegalese artist Vitau Mendy, who reproduces scenes of everyday life ("overloaded fast cars", laundry in the middle of the street...) by inserting the famous logo...
During a rich temporary exhibition presented until May 2019, the Maison de la Vache qui rit invited five creators to discover a little of the daily life of Dakar, the island of Gorée or even the shores of the park national of Djoudj. Through sounds, tales, various forms (knitwear by Sophie Dalla Rosa, metal sculptures by Meissa Fall, who recycles bicycles to make works of art, etc.), the event succeeds in its bet: to make us travel far of Franche-Comté… and clichés.
To nibble plain, spread or melted
In sub-Saharan Africa, cheese paste is eaten quite traditionally on bread. In Kinshasa, the group has successfully encouraged mamas ya mapas (mothers “bread sellers” found almost everywhere in the streets) to sell Laughing Cow sandwiches rather than margarine.
The practice is also developing in Brazza and Abidjan. In the Maghreb, cheese is eaten as is for breakfast, but also in salads, cheesecakes, or melted in msemen. In Morocco, it can even be spread on rolls to accompany “red cheese” (from edam). Yes, you read that right: cheese to accompany cheese.
