The famous Italian sheep cheese pecorino is about to become a Kyrgyz-produced cheese, at least on the island of Sardinia.
Plans are in the works to bring thousands of Kyrgyz sheep farmers and their families to the island to maintain the dying tradition of raising sheep and making the local cheese, pecorino sardo.
Euronews reports that the Sardinian local branch of the national farmers’ union, Coldiretti, Italy’s largest farmers’ union, has worked out a deal with Kyrgyzstan to send about a hundred sheepherders to the Mediterranean island.
It’s a pilot program to eventually repopulate the island and refloat sheep farming and cheese making with Kyrgyz shepherds.
Like many parts of rural Europe, the island has struggled with population loss to cities in recent decades, and few are left to carry on old traditions, including sheepherding. The island is the locale for the certified pecorino sardo—Sardinian sheep cheese—which received Protected Denomination of Origin status in the 1990s.
The Sardinian farmers collective told Euronews that they looked to Kyrgyzstan for assistance as the Central Asian country has a similar long-standing tradition of sheep farming.
The first hundred sheepherders are expected to arrive next year. They will be hosted by the island’s rural communities and given apprenticeships in the local sheep farming tradition, as well as accompaniment by locals to help them assimilate in Sardinian culture. If the initial apprenticeship goes well, they can be offered long-term contracts. If the pilot program is a success, the association plans to bring in thousands of Kyrgyz shepherds.
Representatives for Sardinia’s local chapter of Coldiretti told Euronews that despite the influx of immigrants to the island of Lampedusa, it looked to the far-away country to source immigrant labor in the hope that the Kyrgyz are more accustomed to rural village life and therefore happy to live long-term in the relative isolation and small communities of Sardinia.
Kyrgyzstan is a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, according to the U.S. State Department.
Now an independent republic, the country has, over the course of history, been part of the Mongol, Chinese, Russian, and Soviet Empires. According to Euronews, Kyrgyzstan authorities have yet to offer these jobs in Sardinia to their citizens.
The island has been hit economically by sanctions against Russian oligarchs who used to visit the island’s sparkling beaches, often on yachts.
