Global Cheese Market By Product Overview
Cheese Market was valued at USD 178.9 Billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% to reach USD 248.6 Billion by 2034.
Cheese is a dairy product made from cows, goats, and sheep's milk, made by combining acid or vinegar with milk to convert lactose into lactic acid. It's a healthy food with 2000 types worldwide. Cheese is a creamy blend of protein, fat, minerals, and vitamins, produced at 35-55 degrees Celsius for optimal quality.
Cheese, a popular delicacy with thousands of years of consumption, is one of the oldest foods manufactured by mankind. Made by curdling milk with rennet, it's a staple in many cuisines worldwide.
Cheese is a nutrient-dense food rich in protein, lipids, calcium, phosphorus, and vitamins. It is essential for a healthy diet and comes in various types like fresh, soft, semi-soft, semi-hard, and hard. Popular cheeses include mozzarella, cheddar, feta, parmesan, and brie. Cheese has a rich history, various types, and numerous health benefits, making it a popular ingredient in many cuisines worldwide.
Global Cheese Market By Product Drivers & Restraints
Drivers of the Cheese Market:
Rising consumption of dairy products
- Cheese consumption is increasing due to western cuisine influence, artisanal demand, food and beverage industry expansion, and preference for natural, healthy products.
- American and Italian-style cheeses have seen higher per capita consumption, while Swiss, blue, Muenster, and Hispanic cheeses have seen steady or slightly higher consumption.
Rising Influence of western cuisines
- The cheese market is being influenced by Western cuisines, leading to increased demand for Western-style cheeses like Cheddar, Parmesan, and Mozzarella. This has led to a diversification of cheese products, including flavored options like oregano pickle and red chili flakes.
- The rise of convenience food and packaged meals has also contributed to the market's growth.
Restrains in the Cheese Market:
Increasing health consciousness among individuals:
- Consumer awareness of the negative health effects of cheese consumption, particularly processed products with high additives and preservatives, is increasing. Concerns include obesity, high cholesterol, heart disease, and breast cancer. Cheese is a major source of saturated fat, which can raise LDL cholesterol and heart disease risk.
- The ripening process of cheese can produce toxic substances that negatively impact the nervous system, leading to issues like high blood pressure, headaches, and migraines. The growing health consciousness has led to increased demand for low-fat, low-cholesterol, and plant-based cheese alternatives.
- Regulatory emphasis on nutritional labeling and dietary recommendations is driving consumers towards healthier cheese products.
Unhealthy additives:
- The cheese market is contaminated with unhealthy additives, such as sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, sorbic acid, cellulose, yellow 5 & 6 dyes, carrageenan, and inulin.
- These additives are used to enhance taste, texture, and shelf life of cheese products, but they can have negative health impacts, especially when consumed in excess. These additives can cause hyperactivity, allergic reactions, and increased cancer risk.
- It is crucial for manufacturers and consumers to be aware of these additives and consider healthier alternatives to promote better health outcomes.
Global Cheese Market By Product Segmentations & Regional Insights
The market is segmented based on Product Type, Process, Source, Type, Distribution Channel and Region.
Product Type Insight:
- Processed cheese: Processed cheese is a blend of partially and fully ripened cheeses, as well as a variety of sodium-containing compounds, colors, and tastes to enhance scent, taste, and texture. Chemical combinations in processed cheese items can make them moist and appetizing.
- Cheese spread: Cheese spread is a manufactured meal that combines one or more semi-hard or semi-soft cheeses with other components such as vegetables, meat, fruits, herbs, spices, and ingredients to be served on crackers or toast.
- Flavored cheese: Spreads are used to enhance the flavor or texture of foods that might otherwise be dull. Butter and soft cheese are common spreads.
- Specialty cheese: Specialty cheese has a restricted production and is frequently flavored with nuts, fruit, spices, and herbs to create unique flavor profiles.
Process Insights
- Mozzarella: Mozzarella is a plastic or stretched-curd cheese that is made by mixing curd with warm whey and stretching and kneading it until it has a smooth, malleable consistency. It is then shaped into spheres or ovals and placed in water to keep it moist.
- Cheddar: Cheddar cheese (or just cheddar) is a natural cheese that is moderately firm, off-white (or orange if colorings such as annatto are added), and occasionally harsh in flavor. It derives from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset, southwest England.
- Feta: This segment is expected to boost the target market growth as these are typically the largest and most feature-rich systems available, designed for high-volume key management needs. These systems offer the highest Process and often come with the most advanced features, including extensive reporting capabilities, integration with enterprise security systems and enhanced user management functionalities.
- Roquefort: Roquefort is a moist cheese that easily separates into small pieces. Genuine Roquefort is manufactured from sheep's milk and aged for 3-5 months, resulting in a creamy cheese with a strong, acidic, salty flavor.
- Others: The basic forms of cheese differ in flavor and texture. Fresh cheeses, ricotta, which is unaged and juicy. Soft cheeses such as Camembert have edible rinds. Semi-soft kinds such as Gouda and Fontina have a flexible texture.
Source Insights
- Animal Based: Many cheeses are manufactured with animal rennet, which is derived from the fourth lining of ruminant animals' stomachs, typically a young calf. Learn why cheese isn't always a vegetarian option and how to get cheese manufactured without animal products.
- Plant Based: Plant-based cheese is usually created with plant-based ingredients such nuts, seeds, and legumes, as well as different starches and thickeners. The most popular components used to manufacture plant-based cheese are almonds, cashews, coconut oil, and soy.
Type Insights
- Processed cheese: Processed cheeses differ from natural cheese since they are not created directly from milk but from multiple ingredients such as natural cheese (typically), emulsifying salts, milk solids, butter oil, other dairy products, vegetable oils, or other substances.
- Natural cheese: Natural cheese, as the name implies, is created with simple, natural components, primarily milk, cultures, enzymes, and salt.
- Block cheese: Block cheese is available in a single large block or in sleeves with smaller blocks. To use it on pizza, shred, cut, or dice it. Pre-shredded (sliced, or diced) cheese is ready to use. You simply open the bag and place it on your pizza.
- Spreadable cheese: Spreadable cheeses are soft cheeses that can be easily spread on your ingredients with a knife or spatula. They're extensively used for cooking and snacks because they're enjoyable and simple to operate.
- Hard & Soft cheese: A soft cheese is manufactured without pressing the curd to extract the whey, or milk liquids, resulting in a higher moisture content. Soft cheeses are either minimally aged or not aged at all, resulting in a softer texture but a shorter shelf life. Hard cheese takes significantly longer to melt.
Distribution Channel Insight:
- Supermarket/Hypermarket: A hypermarket is significantly larger than a supermarket. Hypermarkets stock a greater amount of FMCG products than supermarkets. A supermarket has a welcoming, cheerful appearance that draws people, but a hypermarket typically resembles a warehouse.
- Specialty stores: Specialty stores are retail enterprises that specialize in specific product categories, such as office supplies, men's or women's clothes, or carpeting. The breadth of a company's product Product Type decides if it is a specialist store, not the product it sells.
- Convenience stores: It is named a convenience store because it is open in a convenient location near consumers, eliminating the need for them to drive or make a special journey to shop for necessities.
- Online Retail: E-retail, often known as e-tail, internet retail, or online retail, refers to electronic retail. In e-retail, a company or individual offers retail goods and services via internet stores. An e-retail company can have a completely digital presence, which means there is no physical store for customers to visit.
Regional Insights
- North America Cheddar is the first American cheese. The English immigrants brought their valuable cultures and traditional cheesemaking processes with them. The name "American cheese" quickly came to refer to the processed version rather than the traditional but more expensive cheddars produced and sold in the United States.
- Asia Pacific: Paneer and other types of local cheese are now widely produced or sold throughout South Asia. Rubing in Yunnan, China, is comparable to paneer.
- Europe: The popularity of cheese in Europe has not gone ignored by the rest of the world, since numerous European cheeses are now exported worldwide. Some of the most well-known and popular cheese kinds, including French Brie and Italian Parmigiano Reggiano, have become household names around the world.
- Latin America: Fresh Hispanic-style cheeses are typically soft and moist, with a white or off-white color and a delightful fresh milk flavor. Fresh cheeses, like milk, kept refrigerated until used. They have a shorter shelf life than aged cheeses and include a freshness date on the container.
- Middle East & Africa: Jibneh Arabieh is also known as Jibneh Baida "white cheese". It is distributed throughout the Middle East, but is most popular in Egypt and eastern Arabia. It is a fresh cheese with a milky texture, noticeable saltiness, medium firmness, and outstanding melting properties.
Cheese Market Report Scope:
Attribute |
Details |
Market Size 2024 |
US$ 178.9 Billion |
Projected Market Size 2034 |
US$ 248.6 Billion |
CAGR Growth Rate |
3.6% |
Base year for estimation |
2023 |
Forecast period |
2024 – 2034 |
Market representation |
Revenue in USD Million & CAGR from 2024 to 2034 |
Market Segmentation |
By Product – Processed cheese, Cheese spread, Flavored cheese and Specialty cheese By Process – Mozzarella, Cheddar, Feta, Roquefort and Others. By Source – Animal based and Plant based By Type – Processed, Natural, Block, Spreadable and Hard & Soft By Distribution Channel – Supermarket/Hypermarket, Specialty stores, Convenience stores and Online retail |
Regional scope |
North America - U.S., Canada Europe - UK, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe Asia Pacific - Japan, India, China, South Korea, Australia, Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America - Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Rest of Latin America Middle East & Africa - South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Rest of Middle East & Africa |
Report coverage |
Revenue forecast, company share, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends |
Segments Covered in the Report:
This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends and opportunities in each of the sub-segments from 2024 to 2034. For the purpose of this study segmented the target market report based on Product, Process, Source, Type, Distribution Channel and Region:
Segmentation:
By Product:
- Processed cheese
- Cheese spread
- Flavored cheese
- Specialty cheese
By Process:
- Mozzarella
- Cheddar
- Feta
- Roquefort
- Other
By Source:
- Animal Based
- Plant Based
By Type:
- Processed
- Natural
- Block
- Spreadable
- Hard & Soft
By Distribution Channel:
- Supermarket/Hypermarket
- Specialty stores
- Convenience stores
- Online Retail
By Region:
- North America
- U.S.
- Canada
- Europe
- Germany
- UK
- France
- Russia
- Italy
- Rest of Europe
- Asia Pacific
- China
- India
- Japan
- South Korea
- Rest of Asia Pacific
- Latin America
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Rest of Latin America
- Middle East & Africa
- GCC
- Israel
- South Africa
- Rest of Middle East & Africa
Global Cheese Market By Product Competitive Landscape & Key Players
The key players operating in the cheese market include Arla Foods, Bel Group, Fonterra Food, Kraft Heinz, Lactalis Group, SAVENCIA SA, Britannia Industries Limited, Associated Milk Producers Inc., Saputo Inc., and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.
Global Cheese Market By Product Recent News
- In December 2023, New Zealand cheese production surges amid strong milk supply. Sustained investments over time by processors have greatly expanded New Zealand’s processing output, in turn allowing exporters to meet rising demand from burgeoning Asian markets, especially for mozzarella. Cheese exports are forecast to decline in 2024, as increased competitiveness from Australia and the EU is expected to pressure market share in markets like China and Japan.
- In November 2023, British cheese exporters warn of losses unless new Canada deal is reached. British cheese exporters are warning of damaging losses if the UK government fails to reach a deal with Canada that safeguards access to Canadian markets.
- In August 2023, Swiss Face Dairy Dilemma as Cheese Is Set for First Trade Gap. Usually, cheese sales get a boost for Christmas, which has so far always lifted the Swiss back into the green in the second half of the year. But producers are worried that this time, the gap might get too big to offset.
Global Cheese Market By Product Company Profile
- Arla Foods*
- Company Overview
- Product Portfolio
- Key Highlights
- Financial Performance
- Business Strategies
- Bel Group
- Fonterra Food
- Kraft Heinz
- Lactalis Group
- SAVENCIA SA
- Britannia Industries Limited
- Associated Milk Producers Inc.
- Saputo Inc.
- Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.
“*” marked represents similar segmentation in other categories in the respective section
Global Cheese Market By Product Highlights
FAQs
Cheese Market was valued at US$ 178.9 Billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% to reach US$ 248.6 Billion by 2034
The Cheese Market is segmented into Product, Process, Source, Type, Distribution Channel and Region.
Factors driving the market includes Rising consumption of dairy products and Rising Influence of western cuisines.
Restraints of the Cheese Market include Increasing health consciousness among individuals and Unhealthy additives.
The Cheese Market is segmented by region into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America is expected to dominate the Market.
The key players operating in the cheese market include Arla Foods, Bel Group, Fonterra Food, Kraft Heinz, Lactalis Group, SAVENCIA SA, Britannia Industries Limited, Associated Milk Producers Inc., Saputo Inc., and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.