by Sophie Makris
LONS-LE-SAUNIER, France, Sept 9 (AFP) - The makers of Laughing Cow cheese, the snack of choice for French children for decades, are now chuckling all the way to the bank thanks to the creators of a popular US diet plan.
Demand for the triangular wedges of spreadable processed cheese has skyrocketed in the United States over the past year, after the product was suggested as a viable menu item to followers of the South Beach Diet.
"Normally the United States is not part of our production zone -- we usually supply France and Europe," says Jean-Paul Relange, manager of the Bel cheese group's flagship factory in Lons-le-Saunier, in France's Jura mountains.
"But over the last several months, American demand has been so great that we were called in as reinforcements," he explains.
The French factory is churning out thousands of portions of Laughing Cow a day to supplement output from the company's main US plant in the southern state of Kentucky, which is also stepping up its production capabilities.
And for good reason: over the past year, sales of Laughing Cow in the United States have increased by a whopping 250 percent, a major success considering the cheese barely registered on the other side of the Atlantic a year ago.
"Sales went through the roof after the launch of the light version of the product in early 2003, followed by the publication of the South Beach Diet book," says Eric de Poncins, strategy and development director for Bel.
Written by Miami cardiologist Arthur Agatston, the book is the latest in a string of fad diet plans to sweep the United States, with millions of copies sold.
Rather than counting calories and limiting portion size, South Beach enthusiasts are encouraged to consume the "right" carbohydrates and fats in order to shed pounds, with lean proteins and high-fiber foods recommended.
Former US president Bill Clinton, who underwent successful quadruple bypass surgery earlier this week in New York, reportedly lost a significant amount of weight by following the plan.
One of the sample menus listed on the South Beach website suggests a pear and a portion of Laughing Cow Light as a mid-afternoon snack.
"We also think that the idea of wedge portions fits in well with the eating habits of Americans, who adore their snacks," notes de Poncins.
After the spike in demand over the past year, officials at Bel's headquarters in Paris say the company hopes to "stabilize this new trend in consumption" of the brand, founded in 1921 by Leon Bel.
"We're wary of fads: without a doubt, we needed a little something to set this product apart from the rest on the difficult American market, but now we need to make it a fixture in the long term," the officials say.
In Lons-le Saunier, caution is also the buzz word, as officials note that the US market still accounts for only a tiny portion of sales in the 90 countries where the cheese is sold.
"We've helped the US plant out of a jam while they get their manufacturing capacity up to speed. This is only a temporary thing for us," Relange says.
Laughing Cow (La vache qui rit) takes its name from a drawing of a cow in hysterics, called 'La Wachkyrie', that adorned French provisions trucks during World War I. The name was an ironic allusion to the German 'Walkyrie'.