IDM | Markets
Huge opportunities in
China’s surging cheese market
New analysis underlines the dynamics of the market
Author: Patrick Schreiber, Editor at CCM, patrick.schreiber@kcomber.com; CCM is the leading market intelligence
provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals, food & ingredients, and life science markets, cnchemicals.com
Top 10 exporting countries of cheese and curd in China, 2016
Rank Origin Quantity (kg) Value (USD)
1 New Zealand 51,116,396 216,392,254
2 Australia 19,967,897 76,928,686
3 The United States 8,956,282 40,975,731
4 France 3,492,904 21,031,025
5 Italy 2,585,230 15,639,892
6 Denmark 3,102,799 14,711,057
7 Germany 2,459,528 8,811,821
8 Uruguay 1,600,000 5,584,500
9 The Netherlands 611,056 3,415,772
10 Argentina 763,082 2,590,857
Source: China Customs
Top 5 importing countries of cheese and curd from China in 2016
28 · 4-5 2017 | international-dairy.com
China’s cheese manufacturers are
advancing fast to get their share in
the high-speed spreading cheese
market in China. However, the main
sales channels are still in the food service
sector, leaving a high potential for
manufacturers to penetrate into China’s
retail market.
According to CCM’s research (cnchemicals.
com/), the cheese industry in China
witnessed increasing demand for cheese
during 2015-2016. The main sales channels
hereby are food services like hotels,
caterings, and the baking business.
To be more precise, the entrance rate
of cheese in China even reached 79%.
Even the retail sector only accounts for
24% of sales in the whole cheese market
in China, the future looks very encouraging.
According to the Cheese China 2016
Report by Mintel, retail sales are expected
to rise at a CAGR of almost 13% until the
year 2021. Hence, the amount of distributed
cheese would end up at 38,830 tonnes.
Moreover, looking at countries around China,
like Japan and Vietnam, the potential
for cheese sales in retail stores is shifting
more obvious. Those two Asian countries
already have a retail portion of cheese at
about 41% and 73% respectively.
After a strong infiltration of cheese
into China’s 1st and 2nd tier cities in
Rank Destination Quantity (kg) Value (USD)
1 Hong Kong 124,585 771,847
2 Italy 5,220 60,493
3 Mongolia 2,556 13,953
4 Malaysia 65 10,815
5 North Korea 500 3,150
Source: China Customs