Cheese Sales and Trends
Continuing a long-term upward trend, the total production of cheese in the United States reached a record high of 9.9 billion pounds in 2008, an increase of 2% over 2007. Production of American type cheese increased 5% in 2008. In fact, cheddar cheese production increased about 3% in 2008, while other American cheeses, including Colby, Monterey and Jack, increased over 12% over 2007.
U.S. production of Italian-style cheeses decreased slightly (1%) to 4.1 billion pounds. Mozzarella, which represents nearly 78% of this category, decline nearly 3%. Production of American-type cheese showed a slight decrease of 0.9% over 2006. The production of cheddar cheese decreased by about 2.1% in 2007.
Given that there are more than 300 varieties of cheese sold in the United States, most varieties fall into the "other cheeses" category, meaning that they are neither Italian nor American types. Overall, this category was stable in 2008, increasing by only 0.2% and reaching a new high of almost 1.7 billion pounds. Individual varieties also exhibiting steady growth included Muenster (up 14.1%) and Hispanic-style cheeses (up almost 1.4%).
Two states dominate U.S. cheese production: Wisconsin and California. In 2008, Wisconsin remained the largest cheese-producing state with its production of almost 2.52 billion pounds, representing 25.5% of the U.S. total, but California continued to close the distance, producing more than 2.11 billion pounds of cheese in 2008. Adding in Idaho, New York and Minnesota, the top five cheese producing states accounted for 69% of all U.S. cheese production in 2008.
Data from the most recent Census of Manufacturing in 2007 show that the total wholesale value of cheese and cheese products manufactured in the United States was $33 billion. That year, the cheese manufacturing industry employed 41,400 people with a total payroll of $2.12 billion. There were 481 plants reporting cheese manufacturing activities in 2007.
Cheese Sales & Consumption Overview
Cheese consumption continues to rise, continuing its three-decade march forward. As consumers and foodservice find new uses for old favorites and experiment with new varieties, 2008 cheese consumption was 32.5 pounds per capita, a small (0.2%) decrease over the previous record level of 33.2 set in 2007.
The industry estimates that there are now more than 300 varieties of cheese available in the U.S. marketplace. By far the two most popular single varieties of cheese in the United States are mozzarella (10.7 pound per capita) and cheddar (10 pounds per capita). A small but growing category is Hispanic cheese, which continued a decade-long upward climb in 2007; but consumption levels remain modest at 0.64 pounds per capita.
Per capita consumption of all Italian-type cheeses declined slightly in 2008 but remained above 14 pounds. Mozzarella per capita also declined slightly in 2008 to 10.65 pounds. In the American-style category, cheddar remained the same at 10 pounds per capita consumption in 2008, while consumption of other American varieties grew slightly (0.3%) to 3.1 pounds per capita.
In supermarkets, cheddar, mozzarella and processed American led volume sales in 2008. Cheddar emerged as the leader in 2007 with 563 million pounds sold, followed by processed American with nearly 420 million pounds sold, declined approximately 10% in 2008. Coming in third, was mozzarella at 285.6 million pounds sold.
Note: The government provides figures on cheese consumption in per capita terms only; no total volume numbers are available.
International Dairy Trade Overview
Strong world dairy prices and continued high demand levels for U.S. dairy products led to another record-setting year in 2008, in both total value and total quantity traded. The value of 2008 dairy exports was $3.75 billion, up 26 percent over 2007. Total volume of non-fluid products traded rose 13.2 percent over 2007, to reach just over 3 billion pounds. The trade balance for U.S. dairy products increased from $176 million in 2007 to $701 million in 2008.
Nonfat dry milk exports constituted the largest total export volume at 862.4 million pounds, up 51.7 percent over 2007. Although dry whey exports declined 17.5 percent over year-ago levels, they were still the second highest exported dairy product with 772.6 million pounds exported. Lactose exports increased by 9.3 million pounds, making them the third most exported dairy product in 2008. Rounding out the top five were other dairy products, such as infant formula, albumin and malted milk (282.8 million pounds), and cheese and curd (255.5 million pounds).
Nonfat dry milk was also the main driver in terms of total dairy export dollar sales, accounting for $1.38 billion, or 6 percent of total export value. Cheese and curd exports were the second largest source of dairy export revenue in 2008, up 46.7 percent over 2007 to $569.3 million. Dry whey ($514.5 million), other dairy products ($288.7 million), and butter and milk fat ($271.7 million) rounded out this top five.
Mexico and Canada remained the largest purchasers of U.S. dairy products in 2008. These two countries purchased significant amounts of nonfat dry milk, cheese and other dairy products. The Philippines imported $210 million in dairy products, followed closely by Indonesia ($209.2 million). Japan rounded out the top five by importing $208 million worth of dairy products. These five countries alone accounted for 52 percent of the total dairy export revenues in 2008.
