aug 28 2011151 by seeking safety in the swiss franc global investors have caused its value to skyrocket but the currencys rapid appreciation hassignificantly hurt exports and tourism and given rise to serious worries about the future the global financial crisis has finally made its way to this small swiss valley when hans stadelmann talks about currency speculators it seems like two worlds are colliding there is stradelmann the 44yearold cheese maker standing in his small factory which smells of freshly cut appenzeller cheese five men are working at the boilers making the most popular swiss cheese in germany according to a traditional recipe handed down through the centuries and then there are the international financial markets that abstract global entity whose actors have decided that the swiss franc is a safe investment and in doing so have pushed the currencys value to record levels against the dollar and the euro a year back one euro was worth 135 francs two weeks ago the value was 1to1 this presents a problem for stadelmann about 40 percent of his products are exported most of them to eu countries in order to keep his earnings level in francs hes being forced to charge higher prices in euros and not all of his customers are willing to pay them im already selling less and im afraid its going to get much worse stadelmann says and its not just his company hes worried about i get my milk from 50 small family farmers he says if i close up shop id be destroying the livelihoods of 50 families swiss buying imported cheese stadelmann is powerless against the financial markets he knows it and it only makes him worry more investors across the world are finding safe haven in the swiss franc and the countrys export industry is paying the price exports from the alpine nation tumbled by about four billion francs 35 billion or 5 billion in june and exports to the eu the countrys most important trading partner were down almost 15 percent even swiss consumers have been merciless since imported products have gotten cheaper they have even been buying foreign cheese though stadelmann belittles cheeses imported from holland and germany as chewy globs he still cant hide how much hes worried about his industry of course it might be hard to take the complaints of the swiss seriously especially since they come from one of the most prosperous countries in the world per capita economic output is roughly 73000 francs the national debt is only 383 percent of gdp and the unemployment rate is only 3 percent but the swiss fear the end of their success story over the course of the past year the value of the franc has risen 20 percent against the euro with an appreciation of 2 to 5 percent exportdependant companies can go under and they know it says janegbert sturm a researcher at the swiss federal institute of technology zurich but whats