The cheese market and cheese dairies - Spain

Cheese is a milk-based culinary preparation widely consumed throughout the world. Cheese can be added to a variety of dishes, as a starter or main course, or eaten on its own before dessert. There are countless varieties of cheese, depending on the type of milk used, the fermentation method, the type of cheese (soft or hard, etc.) and the country of origin. Worldwide, the leading customer market for cheese consumption is the United States. They are followed by France, Germany, Russia, Brazil and Italy. However, a comparison of sales figures shows that Western Europe is the world's leading market. Growth is also on the cards in most European Union countries, where cheese consumption is up slightly. In Spain, fresh cheese consumption stands out in particular, with over 102 million kilos consumed in the country in 2020. Semi-cooked cheese comes second with 92.13 million kilos, followed by processed cheese (43.27). Far from having suffered from the health crisis in 2020 and 2021, cheese sales in the Iberian Peninsula grew over the period thanks to the maintenance of the main cheese distribution channels: supermarkets, hard-discounts and hypermarkets.