Cheese Production Up 3.5% In 2021

Sunday, May 1st, 2022 -- 9:58 AM

U.S. cheese production in 2021, excluding cottage cheese, totaled 13.71 billion pounds, up 3.5% from 2020, according to revised annual data in the Dairy Products 2021 Summary released this week by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) (all figures are rounded).

American-type cheese production in 2021 totaled 5.57 billion pounds, up 4.3% from 2020 and accounting for 40.6% of total 2021 cheese production. Cheddar accounted for the most American-type cheese production at 3.93 billion pounds, up 2.7% from 2020.

Wisconsin was the leading state for total cheese production in 2021, producing 3.47 billion pounds of cheese or 25.3% of total U.S. production. Wisconsin also was the leading producer of Italian cheeses with 28.7% of total U.S. production, and American-type cheese production with 19.4% of total U.S. production.

Blue and Gorgonzola production increased 21.2% to 89.2 million pounds, and Gouda production increased 25.9% to 56.2 million pounds in 2021.

U.S. production of cream cheese and Neufchatel totaled 1.04 billion pounds in 2021, up 2.3% from 2020.

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