Do you know that France produces 106 types of cheeses-the biggest variety in producing cheese worldwide-and imports them to other countries?
Although cheddar cheese originated in the United Kingdom, there are many importing countries in the world that are interested in French products.
From total value of exported cheese by France in 2021 (3,802,676 USD), Germany was in the first place by importing 23.4% (887,969 USD) of French cheeses, especially cheddar cheese.
Belgium was the second important trade partner of France, which imported 13.6% of exported total (510,029 USD), followed by the United Kingdom and Spain which imported 8.6% and 8,4% of total exported respectively.
These four top major importer countries, imported about 54% of French total exported cheeses.
Luxembourg, Italy, United States of America, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, and Canada are other top importers of French products, which totally imported about one-quarter of total French exports in 2021.
Evidently, cheddar cheese is one of the best-deserved French exported cheeses worldwide and Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom and Spain were major Importers of the product (about 54% of exported total).
Cheddar Cheese Producers
In addition to the United Kingdom as the origin of the product, cheddar cheese produced by many other countries like the United States, France, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, Finland, and Uruguay
According to official statistics, the United Kingdom and the United States of America are the key producers of the product in the world.
For instance, the United Kingdom produced about 338,000 tones of cheddar cheese in 2020, which has been growing steadily since 2014.
The United States of America produced over 1.7 million tones in 2021. Since 2014, the trend of production was upward, except 2019 in which the production decreased due to the pandemic.
To sum up, although cheddar cheese produced in many countries but the key producers and consumers of the product are the United States and the UK.
Cheese Exports by Country
Do you know that more than 97 percent of total world cheese produced by 10 top major cheese producing countries? What about the export of the products?
Yes, over 84 percent of total global cheese exports, shipped by 15 top exporting countries. Interestingly, 80% of exporting countries are from Europe, while only three non-European countries-the United States, New Zealand, and Australia-are among the 15 top major cheese exporters in the world.
The followings were some major exporters of cheese in the world in 2021: Germany (14.7% world total), Netherlands (12.5%), Italy (11.5%), France (10.3%), the United State of America (4.9%), Denmark (4.8%), New Zealand (4%), Belgium (3.5%), Ireland (3.4%), and Belarus (3.2%).
To conclude, the majority of cheese exporters in the world, are European and more than four- fifth of global cheese exported by top 15 countries.
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Top Cheese Importing Countries
What do you know about total cheese production in the world? From which, how much consumed domestically and how much shipped abroad? Here are the exact answers.
The total cheese production in the world in 2021, was about 22 million metric tones, half of which produced by European countries.
The total value of exported cheese worldwide was over 32 billion USD in 2021, which represent 20% of world total production value.
European countries imported more than 70% of total shipped cheese globally.
Germany was in the first place by 4.5 billion USD (nearly 14% of total imported cheese), followed by the United Kingdom with $2.2 billion (6.8%), Italy $2.1 (6.5%), France $1.9 billion (6%), Belgium $ 1.6 billion (4.8%), Netherlands $ 1.5 billion (4.6%), United States $ 1.4 billion (4.2%), Japan $ 1.33 billion (4.1%), Spain $ 1.25 billion (3.9%), and Russia $ 1.1 (3.5%) respectively.
To sum up, over 70% of world total shipped cheese, imported by European countries and only Japan and the Unites States were among top major importers in the world.
Somerdale Cheese
Somerdale represented some of the best cheese producers in Britain and Ireland.
These include Barbers, Joseph Heller, Quickies, Singletons, Cropwell Bishop, Ford Farm, Castle Dreese.
This allows the company to offer an unparalleled variety of products under its own brand names, such as Westminster Cheddar, as well as the familiar names associated with each individual product.
The company products include traditional cheddar cheese, blue cheese, flavored cheeses, fruit mixes and the best traditionally made cheeses.
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Somerdale is the leading independent exporter of British cheese to the US with shipments arriving in New York every week.
The company provides not only the best British cheeses, but also extensive knowledge of how to market and sell the best British cheeses.
With extensive industry experience and working with the best specialty cheese retailers and food industry professionals around the world, Somerdale is well placed to use this knowledge to promote British brands.
To summarize, Somerdale has a passion for British cheese.
The UK and Ireland are home to some of the best cheese producers in the world and the company's mission is to share their products with as many countries and people as possible.
Westminster Cheddar, as well as other types of cheese produced the company.
French cheese exports to UK The United Kingdom is the third partner of France regarding cheese importing, but after Brexit, the trade between the two countries has been declining significantly.
According to International Trace center, in 2021, French cheese exports to UK was about 318,131 USD which represented about 5.
5% of total Franc's exported cheeses.
Compared to Germany which imported more than 15% of total French’s exported cheese, it is not considerable.
As France is one of the major producing of french cheddar with more than one hundred various types, different types of cheese have been exported from the country to the UK in the past, recently, however, the trade between the two partner declined.
As the official statistics shows, import from EU by UK decreased noticeably after Brexit.
Namely, the import of good, including cheese, plugged by 29% after UK’s departure from European single market.
To conclude, although the UK was the third partner of Franc in cheese trade, export of French cheese to the UK declined considerably after Brexit.