When you think of countries famous for cheese, you might think of Italy and its creamy mozzarella, cheddar cheese and the United Kingdom, or maybe even Nepal and its chhurpi yak cheese that could break your teeth. The United States doesn’t even come to mind until after you’ve considered Greece and its feta, Switzerland’s Gruyère, and Mexico’s queso fresca. But the U.S. has still made a name for itself in the cheese industry; just not for being the birthplace of any specific type of cheese. Instead, the United States is known for being the biggest cheese producer in the world (followed by France, Germany, and Italy).
The U.S. doesn’t have centuries of traditional cheesemaking at the center of its culture like Italy. The U.S. isn’t even the country that produces the most kinds of cheese in the world — you find more variety in the United Kingdom. But the United States is a cheese-producing powerhouse. It created a whopping 6.38 million metric tons of cheese, per Statista, compared to Germany’s 2.64 million metric tons and Italy’s 1.2 million metric tons, all in 2022.
Where is all the cheese going?
Americans love cheese: In 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (via Center for Dairy Excellence) estimated each person in the country ate 40.2 pounds of cheese. It’s no wonder — cheese is everywhere in America. It’s stuffed in the best frozen mozzarella sticks on the table at dinner and it’s layered in five-cheese macaroni casseroles all over the Midwest, where most of America’s cheese is made. Plus, most of the cheese produced in the United States stays in the country.
Wisconsin is America’s largest cheese producer, making about 25% of the cheese in the United States. More than 600 varieties of cheese add up to 3.5 billion pounds produced annually, and 90% of the milk produced in the state goes to making cheese. California is the second-largest cheese producer in the United States, making about 2.4 billion pounds every year. Some of that cheese does make it out of America, but the U.S. isn’t the top cheese exporter in the world — it’s fifth on Tendata’s list circa 2022. Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France all export more cheese annually than the United States. Also in 2022, the U.S. exported about $2.3 billion worth of cheese to countries such as Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and Canada, according to the USDA.
