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From butter, cheese and ice cream to powdered milk proteins, dairy is New Zealand’s biggest international export. What’s the appeal? “It comes back to the quality of the grass and the water” used to feed the dairy animals, says Kathryn MacDonnell, sales and marketing manager for Blue River Dairy in Invercargill, New Zealand, which makes cheese and ice cream from sheep’s milk. “The milk is slightly sweeter, the color is creamier.” These characteristics carry through to its popular soft and hard cheeses. “We developed our pecorino as a table cheese,” MacDonnell says. “A lot of Pecorino Romano from Italy is grated and used in cooking [to add a salty flavor]. We don’t use as much salt. That comes from the New Zealand palate—we don’t use a lot of cheese in cooking; we like to eat it as it comes.”