Global cheese production
In terms of production volume, cow milk was without question the leading dairy product in the world. Compared to cheese, which accounted for about 22 million metric tons, over 544 million metric tons of cow milk were produced globally last year. Cheese production has been increasing slightly with each consecutive year since 2015. About half of all the cheese made in 2022 was produced by the European Union. The leading country within the EU-27 was Germany, which produced over 2.25 million metric tons of cheese. Outside of the EU-27, United States was the leading cheese-producing country in 2022.International trade
Many of the world’s top cheese exporting and importing countries were also European: Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France were the leading exporters by a significant margin in 2022. By far the leading importer of processed cheese that year was the United Kingdom, which imported over 230 million U.S. dollars’ worth of the cheese type. France stood in second place that year, importing about three-quarters the amount of the UK.
