The U.S. Dairy Exporter Blog: Market Analysis, Research & News
-
CHART: Cheese Trade Volumes Quietly Climb
By USDEC staff November 23, 2016- Tweet
Strong demand from developing nations (and the United States) is driving cheese exports, despite Russia’s ongoing embargo.
When Russia slapped its dairy embargo on the West in the summer of 2014, cheese exports were one of the hardest hit categories. From 2013-2015, Russian cheese imports fell by more than 210,000 tons (excluding trade with neighbor Belarus), severely disrupting trade flows and heightening competition for alternate markets, particularly among EU and U.S. suppliers.
While the rising cheese import trend lines in Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the United States pale in comparison to the dramatic decline from Russia on the chart below, trade data indicates a resilience in cheese volumes that few expected two years after sanctions.
Cheese Imports: 12-Month Moving Average
Want more market data? Click here to go to our market information section, where you can drill down interactively for granular data based on specific dates, exporters and more.
September trade data from the top buyers, apart from Mexico (see table below from the November issue of USDEC’s Global Dairy Market Outlook), largely disappointed, but the trend through three quarters (building on a solid 2015) is understatedly positive. Excluding Russia, the world’s top three cheese importers—Japan, the United States and Mexico—are on pace for record purchasing through the first nine months of 2016. South Korea, the No. 4 buyer—is just off the record it set in 2015.
Outside the top 5, the gains are even more impressive. Southeast Asian cheese imports (excluding Vietnam) were up 13 percent to more than 62,000 tons in the first seven months of the year compared to the same period in 2015. Brazil’s cheese buying nearly doubled to more than 30,000 tons through September.
Chinese cheese imports grew 28 percent to 75,581 tons in the first nine months of 2016 vs. January-September 2015—in line with its compound annual growth rate since 2008. If that trend continues, and there is no reason to think it would not, China could supplant Australia as the world’s No. 6 buyer by year’s end and catch Mexico and South Korea in 2017.
Emerging markets haven’t fully made up for the total decline in Russian cheese purchasing, and sharp drops in cheese buying in countries like Venezuela and Egypt, where political and economic unrest have eroded purchasing power, continue to complicate the global picture. But the developing world’s emergent appetite for cheese is evident and widespread and bodes well for cheese suppliers willing to cater to that demand.
Editor's note: The analysis on this page is based on data available on November 22.
Learn more about global dairy markets:
- November's Dairy Data Dashboard
- Milk Powder, Whey Products Highlight September Trade Data
- Chart: Global Milk Supply Tightens, For Now
- October's Dairy Data Dashboard
- U.S. Dairy Exports Move Into Positive Territory
- Dairy Commodity Price Movements Bode Well for U.S. Suppliers
Subscribe to the U.S. Dairy Exporter Blog
The U.S. Dairy Export Council fosters collaborative industry partnerships with processors, trading companies and others to enhance global demand for U.S. dairy products and ingredients. USDEC is primarily supported by Dairy Management Inc. through the dairy farmer checkoff. How to republish this post.
10 Most Recent Posts
Most Popular Posts in Past Year
Index of Posts by Topic
- #GotDairyJobs (1)
- About USDEC (40)
- Africa (5)
- Australia (4)
- Blog (8)
- Brazil (4)
- Canada (13)
- Central America (1)
- Cheese (40)
- China (42)
- Common food names (4)
- Company News (6)
- Crisis Management (3)
- Cuba (2)
- Dairy (4)
- Dairy checkoff (1)
- Dairy Trends (4)
- Documentation (3)
- EU (19)
- Exports (13)
- Farming (17)
- Food Aid (8)
- Food Safety (8)
- Foodservice (3)
- Free trade agreements (25)
- Geographical Indications (GIs) (8)
- Global Marketing (85)
- Got Jobs? (4)
- Indonesia (1)
- Innovation (16)
- Japan (12)
- Market Access (23)
- Market Conditions (149)
- Member Services (15)
- Mexico (28)
- Middle East (8)
- Middle East & North Africa (3)
- Middle East/North Africa (7)
- Milk (1)
- Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC) (2)
- New Zealand (10)
- Next5% (10)
- Nonfat Dry Milk/Skim Milk Powder (8)
- Nutrition (16)
- Product Innovation (3)
- Protein (3)
- Regulations (5)
- Research & Data (203)
- Russia (3)
- Singapore (6)
- South America (6)
- South Korea (7)
- Southeast Asia (18)
- Sustainability (5)
- Technology (2)
- ThinkUSADairy (2)
- TPP (13)
- Traceability (8)
- Trade Barriers (5)
- Trade Data (2)
- Trade Policy (49)
- TTIP (5)
- UHT Milk (7)
- Vietnam (4)
- Whey (5)
- Whey products (10)
- Whole Milk Powder (WMP) (3)
- Yogurt (1)
Index of Posts by Date, Author
- March 2015 (12)
- September 2015 (12)
- March 2014 (11)
- April 2015 (11)
- December 2015 (11)
- February 2015 (10)
- October 2015 (10)
- October 2014 (9)
- June 2015 (9)
- July 2015 (9)
- November 2015 (9)
- March 2016 (9)
- September 2013 (8)
- May 2015 (8)
- August 2015 (8)
- January 2016 (8)
- February 2016 (8)
- March 2017 (8)
- December 2018 (8)
- June 2014 (7)
- November 2016 (7)
- May 2017 (7)
- May 2018 (7)
- July 2016 (6)
- August 2018 (6)
- October 2018 (6)
- November 2018 (6)
- February 2014 (5)
- June 2016 (5)
- August 2016 (5)
- September 2016 (5)
- December 2016 (5)
- February 2017 (5)
- July 2017 (5)
- October 2017 (5)
- January 2018 (5)
- April 2018 (5)
- June 2018 (5)
- July 2018 (5)
- September 2018 (5)
- January 2019 (5)
- May 2013 (4)
- September 2014 (4)
- April 2016 (4)
- May 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (4)
- January 2017 (4)
- April 2017 (4)
- June 2017 (4)
- August 2017 (4)
- September 2017 (4)
- December 2017 (4)
- February 2018 (4)
- November 2017 (3)
- March 2018 (3)
- March 2011 (2)
- June 2011 (2)
- September 2011 (2)
- March 2012 (2)
- June 2012 (2)
- July 2012 (2)
- March 2013 (2)
- July 2013 (2)
- January 2010 (1)
- February 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (1)
- June 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- August 2010 (1)
- September 2010 (1)
- October 2010 (1)
- November 2010 (1)
- December 2010 (1)
- January 2011 (1)
- February 2011 (1)
- April 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (1)
- July 2011 (1)
- August 2011 (1)
- October 2011 (1)
- November 2011 (1)
- December 2011 (1)
- January 2012 (1)
- February 2012 (1)
- April 2012 (1)
- August 2012 (1)
- September 2012 (1)
- October 2012 (1)
- November 2012 (1)
- December 2012 (1)
- January 2013 (1)
- February 2013 (1)
- April 2013 (1)
- June 2013 (1)
- August 2013 (1)
- October 2013 (1)
- November 2013 (1)
- December 2013 (1)
- January 2014 (1)
- April 2014 (1)
- May 2014 (1)
- Mark O'Keefe (103)
- Alan Levitt (95)
- USDEC staff (44)
- Tom Suber (41)
- Margaret Speich (22)
- Marc A.H. Beck (15)
- Angélique Hollister (11)
- Vikki Nicholson-West (10)
- Jaime Castaneda (7)
- Ross Christieson (7)
- Véronique Lagrange (7)
- Margaret Speich and Mark O'Keefe (6)
- Matt McKnight (6)
- Tom Vilsack (6)
- Shawna Morris (4)
- Alan Levitt and Marc Beck (3)
- Brad Gehrke (3)
- Kristi Saitama (3)
- Marilyn Hershey (3)
- Luke Waring (2)
- Merle McNeil (2)
- Annie Bienvenue (1)
- Brad Scott (1)
- Dermot Carey (1)
- Errico Auricchio (1)
- Jeremy Travis (1)
- Kara McDonald (1)
- Mitchell Bowling (1)
- Rodrigo Fernandez (1)
- Ross Christieson and Shawna Morris (1)
- Sandra Benson (1)