# Where does cheese come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/cheese/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/cheese.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

Cheese comes mainly from the United States, which produced 6.4 million tonnes in 2023, 28% of the world's 23 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). Germany (10%), France (7.5%) and Italy (5.3%) follow; the top five together supply 55%. The biggest exporter of cheese (HS 0406) is Germany (15% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). Cheese is made where milk is abundant and cheap, because milk is bulky and spoils quickly, so the map of cheese production is the map of temperate dairy farming with a century of plant investment on top of it.

*Milk concentrated by coagulation and ageing, the form in which most traded dairy protein and fat moves.* Also called: cheeses, cheddar, mozzarella, curd.

## Where does cheese come from?

| Rank | Country | Production 2023 (tonnes) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 6.4 million | 28% |
| 2 | Germany | 2.4 million | 10% |
| 3 | France | 1.7 million | 7.5% |
| 4 | Italy | 1.2 million | 5.3% |
| 5 | Netherlands | 989,810 | 4.3% |
| 6 | Poland | 975,560 | 4.2% |
| 7 | Turkey (Türkiye) | 773,082 | 3.4% |
| 8 | Russia | 604,962 | 2.6% |
| 9 | Canada | 569,350 | 2.5% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | 509,900 | 2.2% |
| | Rest of world | 0 | 30% |
| | World | 23 million | 100% |

Source: FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2023.

In 2023 United States produced 6.4 million tonnes, 28% of the world's 23 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). Germany followed with 10%, then France (7.5%), Italy (5.3%) and Netherlands (4.3%). The top five account for 55%, 95 countries reported output and 30% came from outside the top ten. World production changed +25% over the ten years to 2023 and +1% on the previous year.

Cheese is a way of storing milk. Raw milk is mostly water and lasts days; cheese concentrates the protein and fat into something that keeps for months and travels, which is why it became the form in which dairy crosses borders. Production therefore sits where milk is produced, and the ranking here follows the milk ranking closely: see /commodities/milk/ for the underlying supply and the dairy price.

The series counts cheese made from whole cow milk, so buffalo mozzarella, sheep and goat cheeses fall outside it, while the trade data covers cheese and curd from any milk.


## Who exports and imports cheese?

### Exporters of cheese and curd (HS 0406), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | $6.6 billion | 15% |
| 2 | Italy | $5.7 billion | 13% |
| 3 | Netherlands | $5.6 billion | 13% |
| 4 | France | $4.2 billion | 9.4% |
| 5 | United States | $2.5 billion | 5.6% |
| 6 | Denmark | $2.4 billion | 5.3% |
| 7 | New Zealand | $1.7 billion | 3.8% |
| 8 | Ireland | $1.7 billion | 3.8% |
| 9 | Belgium | $1.4 billion | 3.1% |
| 10 | Poland | $1.3 billion | 3% |
| 11 | Greece | $1.1 billion | 2.4% |
| 12 | Austria | $980.4 million | 2.2% |
| 13 | United Kingdom | $914.3 million | 2% |
| 14 | Spain | $898.8 million | 2% |
| 15 | Switzerland | $812.7 million | 1.8% |

### Importers of cheese and curd (HS 0406), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | $6 billion | 13% |
| 2 | France | $3.1 billion | 7% |
| 3 | Italy | $2.8 billion | 6.3% |
| 4 | United Kingdom | $2.6 billion | 5.8% |
| 5 | Netherlands | $2.3 billion | 5.2% |
| 6 | Belgium | $2.1 billion | 4.6% |
| 7 | Spain | $2.1 billion | 4.6% |
| 8 | United States | $2 billion | 4.4% |
| 9 | Japan | $1.3 billion | 2.8% |
| 10 | Mexico | $1.1 billion | 2.4% |
| 11 | Saudi Arabia | $947 million | 2.1% |
| 12 | Sweden | $857.2 million | 1.9% |
| 13 | China | $854.9 million | 1.9% |
| 14 | Austria | $837.8 million | 1.9% |
| 15 | Poland | $788.7 million | 1.8% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

Germany was the largest exporter of cheese (HS 0406) in 2024 with 15% of world export value, ahead of Italy (13%), on world trade of $44.8 billion (CEPII BACI). Germany was the largest importer with 13%.

European countries fill both sides of the table because much of this trade is internal to the European single market: German, Dutch, French and Italian cheese crosses borders within Europe before any of it leaves. Ranking exporters by shipments to the rest of the world would produce a shorter and different list.

The growth in demand is elsewhere. Japan, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America buy cheese they do not make, mostly commodity mozzarella and cheddar for food manufacture and food service, supplied by the European Union, New Zealand and the United States. Named regional cheeses are a much smaller share of tonnage than of attention.


## What does cheese cost?

### How it is priced

There is no futures price on this page. Exchange-traded contracts do exist for cheese and for Class III milk in the United States, and this site does not carry them; the dairy benchmark it does carry sits on /commodities/milk/. Elsewhere cheese is priced on wholesale block and barrel quotations, on cooperative pool payments to farmers, and on private assessments published by subscription services.

Most cheese never touches a spot quote at all. It is sold on annual retail and food-service contracts whose formulas reference published milk component values, so what moves is the milk price and the plant's margin rather than a cheese price as such. Protected regional cheeses are priced separately by age and grade, with consortium rules limiting how much may be made.


## What moves the price of cheese?

### The milk price

Milk is the overwhelming input cost, so cheese follows the milk market rather than leading it. Feed costs, weather, herd size and the milk price paid to farmers all reach cheese with a lag of weeks. The dairy price series carried on this site is at /commodities/milk/.

### Fat and protein values

Milk can go to cheese, butter and powder, and processors send it where the components earn most. When butterfat is dear relative to protein, milk is pulled away from cheese vats, and cheese output falls without any change in the number of cows.

### Market access

Cheese faces high tariffs and tariff-rate quotas in most importing countries, so access is rationed rather than priced. A quota allocation, a veterinary certificate or a sudden import ban can matter more to an exporter than the cost of making the cheese.

### Protected names

Geographical indications restrict who may use a name and often cap output within a defined area. That is a real supply constraint and a durable premium, and it is why cheese names are fought over in trade negotiations more fiercely than tariff lines are.

### Whey value

Cheesemaking leaves whey, and a modern plant depends on selling whey protein and lactose. When whey prices are strong the plant can afford to sell cheese more cheaply, so the sports nutrition and infant formula markets quietly influence what cheese costs.

## How is cheese produced?

Milk is standardized to a target fat and protein ratio, usually pasteurized, and set with starter cultures that acidify it and with rennet that coagulates it. Rennet was once an extract of calf stomach; most is now chymosin made by fermentation, which is why cheese supply no longer depends on the veal trade.

The curd is cut, stirred and warmed to expel whey, then drained, salted and shaped. What happens next defines the family: fresh cheeses are eaten within days; pasta filata curds such as mozzarella are stretched in hot water; hard cheeses are pressed, brined and matured for months or years; blues and washed rinds are ripened with deliberate molds and bacteria.

Yield is the number that governs plant economics, at roughly ten liters of milk for a kilogram of hard cheese, and the rest leaves as whey. Aging ties up capital and space, so long-matured cheeses carry an inventory cost that fresh cheeses do not.


## What is cheese used for?

Most cheese is eaten as cheese, but the largest single industrial pull is pizza, which made mozzarella the volume cheese of world trade. Processed cheese, made by blending and emulsifying, supplies slices, spreads and food service, and shredded and diced cheese goes into prepared meals, sauces and snacks.

The by-products are now a business in their own right. Whey is dried and fractionated into whey protein concentrate and isolate for sports and clinical nutrition, lactose for pharmaceuticals and infant formula, and permeate for animal feed. Cream skimmed off before cheesemaking goes to butter, and brine and washings are recovered where regulations require it.


## Supply chain and chokepoints

The chain starts with a collection radius. Milk is heavy and perishable, so tankers gather it from farms within a few hours of the plant, which fixes cheese factories in dairy regions and makes the plant, not the farm, the bottleneck. A new cheese plant is a large, indivisible investment, so capacity arrives in steps and then has to be filled.

From the vat the cheese moves to ripening rooms, then to cutting and packing operations that are often close to the retail market rather than to the milk. Hard cheese travels well in ordinary refrigerated containers; fresh cheeses are made near where they are eaten.

The vulnerabilities are the milk supply, the export certificate and the culture. Milk cannot be stored while a dispute is settled, veterinary and quota paperwork can strand a container at a port, and the starter cultures and fermentation-produced chymosin that every plant depends on come from a small number of specialist suppliers.


## Timeline

- 1984-03: The European Community introduces milk quotas. Regulation 856/84 put a levy on milk delivered above a reference quantity, capping the milk that European cheese plants could draw on for the next three decades. (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31984R0856)
- 1992-07: The EU creates protected designations of origin. Regulation 2081/92 gave regional cheese names legal protection against imitation, turning provenance into a defended asset and a permanent price premium. (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31992R2081)
- 2012: The EU adopts the dairy package. Written contracts and collective bargaining for milk producers were introduced to prepare the supply chain for the end of quotas. (https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/farming/animal-products/milk-and-dairy-products_en)
- 2014-08: Russia bans dairy imports from the EU and others. The ban took effect on 13 August 2014 and closed a large export outlet for European cheese, pushing volume back into the internal market. (https://www.fao.org/giews/food-prices/food-policies/detail/en/c/246122/)
- 2015-04: EU milk quotas end. Milk output was free to grow for the first time since 1984, and much of the additional milk went into cheese, the highest-value bulk outlet available. (https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/farming/animal-products/milk-and-dairy-products_en)
- 2024-05: The EU consolidates its geographical indication rules. Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 unified registration across food, wine and spirits, tightening the framework that governs which cheeses may carry which names. (https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/farming/geographical-indications-and-quality-schemes/geographical-indications-and-quality-schemes-explained_en)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most cheese

United States produced 6.4 million tonnes in 2023, 28% of the world's 23 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). Germany was second with 10%. The figures count cheese made from whole cow milk, so sheep, goat and buffalo cheeses are not included. The top five producers accounted for 55% of world output.

### how much milk does it take to make cheese

Roughly ten liters of milk for a kilogram of hard cheese, with the exact ratio set by the milk's protein and fat content and by the style being made. Fresh cheeses use less milk per kilogram because they retain more water. The rest of the milk leaves the vat as whey.

### is there a cheese price benchmark

Not one carried on this site. Exchange contracts for cheese and Class III milk exist in the United States, and cheese is otherwise sold on block and barrel quotations, cooperative pools and private assessments. The dairy price series this site does publish is at /commodities/milk/.

### which country exports the most cheese

Germany, with 15% of world export value in 2024, ahead of Italy at 13%, on trade of $44.8 billion (CEPII BACI). Much of that moves between European countries rather than leaving the continent, and the largest importer, Germany at 13%, is also the largest exporter.

### why is cheese expensive

Because it concentrates a perishable raw material and then stores it. About ten liters of milk go into a kilogram of hard cheese, and maturing ties up warehouse space and working capital for months or years. Protected regional cheeses add a supply limit set by consortium rules.

### what is whey used for

It is the liquid left after the curd is separated, and it is now a product in its own right: dried and fractionated into whey protein concentrate and isolate for nutrition products, lactose for pharmaceuticals and infant formula, and permeate for animal feed. Whey revenue is part of what sets a cheese plant's margin.

## Sources

- FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2023. License: CC BY 4.0 (FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use). https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37

Text last reviewed 2026-09-05. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where does cheese come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/cheese/.