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A BREATH OF FRESH AIR SAY CHEESE WAR ON ... - GEA Group

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4<br />

<strong>CHEESE</strong> IS BIG<br />

BUSINESS: DESPITE<br />

BEING EATEN FOR<br />

10,000 YEARS, IT<br />

IS STILL NOT A<br />

mATURE mARkET.<br />

BUT IT’S GROWING<br />

STR<strong>ON</strong>GLY.<br />

n 1962, President Charles de Gaulle<br />

famously said of France: “How can you<br />

govern a country which has two hundred<br />

and forty-six varieties of cheese?”<br />

Two hundred and forty-six? Some estimates<br />

suggest that there could be closer to 1,000<br />

varieties of French cheese together with at<br />

least 400 Italian cheeses, more than 600<br />

German varieties, and hundreds of others<br />

produced in the Netherlands, Poland and<br />

the Uk.<br />

It is not only the multitude of varieties that is<br />

remarkable, but also the scale of production.<br />

In 2010 the world made an estimated 20.4<br />

million tonnes of cheese – or almost three<br />

kilograms for every person on Earth.<br />

The EU as a whole is far and away the<br />

largest producer of cheese. It is also the<br />

largest exporter and the largest consumer,<br />

with individual European countries topping<br />

each of these tables. France is the largest<br />

exporter by value and Germany the biggest<br />

by volume. Greece has the highest per capita<br />

consumption. Total EU exports in 2012 are<br />

expected to reach 640,000 tonnes with Russia<br />

and the US the main destinations.<br />

Production shift<br />

Cheese is a key industry in Europe and<br />

in countries – such as the United States,<br />

Australia and New Zealand – that have been<br />

strongly influenced by European cultures and<br />

farming practises.<br />

But the dominance of Europe in cheese<br />

production is now being challenged by the<br />

emerging markets. Between 2005 and 2010,<br />

the combined share of global production taken<br />

by the EU and the US fell from 62 per cent to<br />

57 per cent, and around 70 per cent of the<br />

‘new’ cheese production over the same period<br />

took place outside of the traditional areas.<br />

Furthermore, the cheese being produced<br />

in emerging markets is being consumed<br />

in those markets. In Russia, Brazil and<br />

Argentina, for example, consumption is

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