Djokovic Corners The World-Wide Market on Donkey Cheese

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 11th December 2012

EXHIBITION GAME BETWEEN DJOKOVIC AND KUERTEN

Djokovic Corners The World-Wide Market on Donkey Cheese

epa03475788 Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic returns a ball during an exhibition game against Brazilian former tennis player Gustavo Kuerten at Maracanazinho colliseum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17 November 2012. EPA/Marcelo Sayao |

Strange but true – and no it is not April 1 – but world no.1 ranked player Novak Djokovic is buying the world’s entire supply of the world’s most expensive cheese, known as Pule.

This year Djokovic has topped the ATP World Tour’s money list by winning nearly $13 million and that’s just as well because Pule, a white, crumbly Serbian cheese made from donkey’s milk, costs more than $640 a pound.

Djokovic intends to use his monopoly of the world’s Pule stocks in a new chain of restaurants he is opening in Serbia throughout 2013 and understandably the tennis star has delighted the owners of the only farm in the world to make the product.

The delicacy is produced on a donkey farm in Zasavica, set amid one of Serbia ’s most famous wildlife and nature reserves and is so expensive because it requires 25 litres of donkey’s milk to make one kilogram of cheese.

The manager of the Zasavica cheese company, Slobodan Simic, says the donkeys provide his produce with a unique taste and enthused: “It will save a lot of effort having to deal with various restaurants.

“With only one customer buying the lot we don’t have to worry too much about salesmen. It is a great vote of confidence as well in what we do here.”

The Zasavica farm, which lies 50 miles west of the Serbian capital Belgrade , boasts a herd of 130 donkeys and is said to be the only place in the world where the animals are milked for cheese. Since donkey milking machines are not produced commercially, the females, or jennies, are milked by hand three times a day.

Donkey milk is said to be particularly healthy for humans as it has anti-allergen properties, and contains only one per cent fat. It also has 60 times more vitamin C than cow’s milk.