WALLACE and Gromit, not content with visiting the moon for their cheese, are now exploring America, Canada and Europe with a little help from the York and North Yorkshire Export Forum.

Staff from the £8 million turnover Wensleydale Dairy Products, which manufactures the popular Wallace and Gromit Wensleydale cheese at its Hawes factory, attended a series of workshops organised by the Export Forum to give practical exporting advice.

Now the cheesy TV twosome's journey throughout North America and Europe has been accelerating, along with some of Wensleydale's other 20 products.

Phil Jones, the firm's product director, who points out that ways are being sought to increase exporting to more than five per cent of the trade, said: "Our knowledge of the export process has significantly improved, which will result in increased sales.

Wensleydale Dairy Products recently took over the Fountains Creamery at Kirkby Malzeard, near Ripon, boosting its staff numbers to about 150.

The Wallace and Gromit cheese brand began in the mid-1990s in the wake of the Oscar-winning success of The Wrong Trousers, the animated film in which Wallace's love of Wensleydale cheese is first made known.

Roland Harris, who is chairman of the York and North Yorkshire Export Forum, as well as being chief executive of the region's Chamber of Commerce, said: "I am glad that our guidance and assistance has been so useful to Wensleydale Dairy Products.

"Many companies throughout York and North Yorkshire are benefiting from our export advice."