ZURICH — Accidental entrepreneur Michael Fontana-Jones is making stinky British cheese pay in a crowded market: Switzerland, a country renowned for domestic varieties such as holey Emmental and nutty Gruyere.
Last year his British Cheese Centre in Zurich imported 35,000 pounds of British cheese compared with 1,500 pounds in 2008, the year after he started. He sells Stinking Bishop, voted England’s smelliest cheese and supplied to the household of Prince Charles, for $91 per kilo. He gets 100 francs for Ragstone, a soft raw goat’s cheese. Gruyere, a traditional Swiss cheese, retails for 19 francs per kilo at supermarket chain Migros.
The industrial strength of Switzerland, home to some of Europe’s biggest companies, gives its citizens the highest average gross monthly wage in Europe of $7,766. In neighboring Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, the average is just $3,917. Lower income tax rates than in most other European countries mean Swiss consumers are able to spend more money on costly goods, enabling entrepreneurs like Fontana-Jones, 52, to sell his wares for more than he could at home.
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