Should we be maturing Irish cheddar in caves to get a premium price for our cheese and help bolster the collapsing milk price?

You might think The Dealer is mad but the Spanish are doing just that and getting very tasty returns, thank you very much.

A record price of €13,636/kg was paid recently for ‘cave-matured’ cheese in northern Spain.

Restaurant owner Iván Suárez paid €30,000 for a 2.2kg wheel of the exclusive Cabrales Blue cheese.

The cheese is made from a mix of milk from cows, sheep and goats and is left to mature in a cave at an altitude of 1,400 metres for at least eight months. Could the same be done with Irish cheddar, The Dealer wonders?

I’m sure there are a heap of caves in the Boggeragh and Nagle Mountains, if Ornua was interested.

They might even consider sticking a blast of cheddar into the Aillwee Caves in the Burren during the winter off-season.

The tourists would pay a fortune for Aillwee Blue.

The Dealer surely missed his vocation - he should have gone into sales or marketing as they call it these days.