10 Best Milk and Cheese Companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina

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1. The world’s most mysterious cheese is produced in Banja Luka. Only one man knows the recipe for the famous trappist or monk cheese. The very first traces of cheese production in the Trappist monastery of Maria Zvijezda date back to 1872 in a small factory built by abbot Franz Pfanner, who at the time named his cheese- Swiss. The word of this unique and widely known cheese, whose consumption has always been a matter of prestige, and whose recipe is transmitted verbally and only one man knows it, has been spread around the world.

Nowadays, Trappist cheese is produced under supervision of a monk from the Trappist order in rural community Livač (where the farm and the capacities for the widely known cheese are located), located in Aleksandrovac near the town of Banjaluka. This is a very small community and counts only three monks. Those monks live by the motto „pray and work“. Trappist monks are one of the sctrictest rows in the Catholic Church, which is characterized by the fact that they do not have contact with the outside world. Also, they all live from what they themselves produce.
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2.Travnik Cheese- or Vlašićki cheese is one of the most significant in the central Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is highland cheese similar in its salty taste to Travnički, originates in the villages on Vlašić Mountain.Travnik cheese is produced entirely in the Vlasic belt and has sesquipedalian tradition. This famous cheese is prepared with milk from the local breeds such as sheep and the cow.
So, the fresh whey forms a mass of 20 kilos. Then it is divided into one or possibly two-kilo cubes and placed in brine. Those are characteristic wooden containers.The cheese is sold in these containers only in the Travnik zone.

3.Meggle Bihać Cheese-In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the story of our company begins in 1996, whereas in Germany, more specifically Bavaria near Munich, as far back as 1889. At that time, Josef Anton Meggle, the grandfather of today’s owner Toni Meggle, founded a small cheese-making factory which as it turned out, had great potential.

In 1996, Meggle entered the market in Bosnia-Herzegovina through distributors, and two years later founded Meggle Bosnia-Herzegovina which utilises the services of the local dairy Sapit Posušje. At the very beginning, Meggle was known for its high-quality extra quality butter, dairy spreads and milk.

Meggle’s leading position was consolidated after starting its own dairy in Bihać in 2002.

Today, production takes place at the site covering a total area of over 25,000 m², within which more than 4,000 m² of production and warehouse space is located along with the appropriate equipment and facilities processing milk, production and control of dairy products, as well as their proper storage and distribution to the market.

Thanks to the capacity of the dairy, and to a smaller extent an imported assortment from sister companies across Europe, Meggle has successfully retained its assortment of over 150 different products. The most famous products from the local range are certainly milk, yogurt, sour cream, kefir cream, kajmak cream, vajkrem and cooking cream…

The quality of our domestic products has been recognised by countries in the region, hence today, Meggle Bosnia-Herzegovina exports to markets in Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and since 2015 to the markets in European Union countries, primarily Croatia.

MEGGLE Bosnia-Herzegovina is constantly investing into expanding its production and logistics capacities, as well as introducing and investing in new technologies, training and development of their staff, and the company provides significant assistance to agricultural producers in their efforts to significantly improve and increase their production with the aim of increasing the level of their competitiveness.
4.Milkos Sarajevo-Sarajevo Milkos Dairy, a Sarajevo-based dairy plant that slaughtered dairy farms in the area. It was founded as the Sarajevo Central Dairy. It was built 1953 with the assistance of the International Children’s Aid Fund. It had a capacity of 50,000 liters of milk, which was then more than sufficient. Increased capacity includes a population increase compared to 160,000. They had to deal with the supply of milk, because there was no experience of buying and selling milk, and before the war there were no dairies with the necessary machinery for pasteurization and cooling of milk. The tradition of dairy farming in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a no-brainer.

The dairy was intended to assist the children of Sarajevo in the aftermath. Founded as an independent company, it was part of IPK Sarajevo, and for many years a member of the UPI Sarajevo business system. It operated well until the Greater Serbian aggression against Sarajevo and the siege of Sarajevo, after which it fell into a crisis from which it emerged only in 2004, when it was privatized. Until 2007, her plants were in Pofalici, across from the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory. Given the proximity to the city center, traffic density, quality of supply and delivery, production had to be relocated. The management decided to relocate the plants to the industrial zone in Hadžići and significantly automate production. For the purposes of the Milkos Society of Milkos of Sarajevo, in 2008, Milkos and Teloptic erected the most modern and equipped farm in the Balkans – the Spreča farm in Kalesija. It covers a third of Milkos’ needs and the rest is covered by subcontractors.
5.Livno cheese- Two medals for the first place won at the III and IV Balkan Cheese Festival in Belgrade (Republic of Serbia) two years in a row confirm the fact that the best cheese in the Balkans is produced in Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Dairy Orman managed to increase the number of their employees in two years and to attract young people from Sarajevo and other places in BiH to come to work and live in Livno.
It is also a dairy that has a maximum processing capacity of 2,000 liters of milk on a daily basis and it offers unique products in BiH – Livno hard cheese with peppers, lemon, and herbs.
“We have 20 different products. We have six different types of Livno hard cheese. We have a classic Livno cheese from which we have developed five new products since the last year. We included different flavors and technologies and that is how we invented Livno cheese with pepper. We also have Livno cheese with lemon and pepper, Livno cheese with herbs and we are very proud to develop a new product – Livno cheese selection. We are now in the process of developing a reserve cheese that is in ripening for at least 12 months. This will be one of our best products ever,” said Sead Causevic, production manager in Dairy Orman.
“We are definitely planning to expand our capacities by building a new production facility. Moreover, we are planning to hire about 20 to 25 people to cover the entire process of production,” stated Causevic.
Causevic is a young technologist who replaced the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, with Livno, and not with Germany, Sweden or some other countries where young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Balkans are often going in recent years.
“Of course that I see my future in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I came here as well since I am not from here. I came two and a half years ago, and I live here now. I am very satisfied. You can succeed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It takes a lot of hard work, good will, and effort but it can be achieved,” noted Causevic.