M. Shahbandeh
Research expert covering agriculture & FMCG
Global cheese market - statistics & facts
Europe has the highest level of per capita cheese consumption in the world followed by the U.S. and Canada. Cheese is a widely consumed dairy product and the market is growing significantly. The global sales value of all kinds of cheese is forecast to increase by up to 55 billion U.S. dollars in the next ten years.
Market leaders
Cheese production has been increasing slightly with each consecutive year since 2015. About half of all the cheese made in 2023 was produced in the European Union. The leading country within the EU-27 was Germany, which produced over two million metric tons of cheese. Many of the world’s top cheese exporting and importing countries were also European: Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France were the leading exporters of fresh and processed cheese by a significant margin in 2023. By far the leading importer of processed cheese that year was the United Kingdom, which imported over 220 million U.S. dollars’ worth of the cheese variety. China stood in sixth place that year, importing about half of the amount of the UK. Chinese dairy company Yili was ranked the leading dairy processing company worldwide based on brand value as of 2023.Dairy-cheese is still more popular than plant-based cheese
In 2023, annual cheese consumption in the EU and the U.S. was over 9 million and 6 million pounds respectively. The amount far exceeded consumption numbers in other parts of the world. Different types of cheese are most popular depending on the region. Semi-hard and semi-soft cheese and cream cheese were the most consumed types in Germany. Unsurprisingly, in the U.S. American cheese was the most popular cheese type among consumers. While consumption of dairy cheese in the U.S. was projected to increase over time, non-dairy/plant-based cheese consumption in the United States was forecast to remain unchanged in the near future. The situation was similar in the UK with about 25 million people consuming low-fat and normal cheese as of 2023. Only 1.66 million consumers ate vegan cheese in the same year.
