Belarusian Couple Restart Cheese Business In Poland
Yulia and Alyaksey ran a successful cheese production farm in the north of Belarus. Now the pair have rebuilt the business in Poland, catering mostly to Belarusian emigres.
In 2020, the same year massive repressions began in Belarus after a disputed presidential election, cheesemakers Yulia and Alyaksey packed up what they could carry and moved to Poland.
“We decided to take horses and dogs with us,” Yulia says, adding that the expense of horse transportation west to Poland was worth it because the horses “had already been through a lot with us together and we had become close.” Three of their seven dogs were given to friends.
Yulia serves cheeses in her Polish farmhouse.
In December 2021, the pair left Belarus. Their dogs and horses needed passports and vaccinations to cross the border and the horses also had to undergo veterinary tests. The horses traveled separately in a transporter, while four large dogs were squeezed into the couple’s car. The animals took up so much space that Yulia and Alyaksey were limited to taking just two suitcases. Whatever they couldn’t fit was left in Belarus or sold.
“We would have stayed; we had a good farm, we wanted to invest in it and develop it, but somehow we didn’t see a future,” Yulia explains.
Yulia with the sheep and goats she and her partner purchased in Poland.
The couple sold their sheep, goats, and cows, and called on friends of friends in Poland to give them temporary accommodation. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to millions of refugees entering Poland it became difficult to find housing there, especially a property with land
“I had to search a lot, travel and learn Polish quickly,” Yulia says.
Eventually, the Belarusians found a house for rent not far from Krakow along with three hectares of land. Now their farm is populated with their “Belarusian” horses and dogs, as well as 20 sheep and 18 goats which they bought in Poland.
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