Quick riddle: who is the biggest cheese producer in the EU?

In 2021, more than 10 million tonnes of cheese were produced across the European Union. In our collective imagination, a trifecta, not necessarily in order, stands out: France, Italy and the Netherlands. If this trio plays, indeed, the first places, none of these countries occupies the head of the classification. An outsider like Greece or Spain? Nay, the European nation that produces the most cheese is (drum roll): Germany!

And this is not a “small” first place, since Germany largely dominates with 500,000 tonnes more than the production of the second, namely France. In total, Germany produced 2.3 million tons in 2021, compared to more than 1.8 million tons for France and more than 1.3 million tons for Italy, which occupies third place ahead of the European countries. -Down.

How to explain this classification?

First, one of the explanations lies in the size of agricultural holdings in Germany. If it is thus common to find farms with 100 cows in France, this is nothing compared to the gigantism of very many German farms, where more than 1,000 cattle can be counted. With such an “instrument of production”, milk – the raw material for cheese – is necessarily in abundance.

Second element to take into account, Germany has few controlled designations of origin (PDO) or geographical designations (IGP). The objective of these identification signs set up in the European Union is to defend and supervise the production of emblematic cheeses from the terroirs of the member countries. Italy, with its 62 appellations, is ahead of France (59) and Greece (33). In Germany, only 9 cheeses, such as “Holsteiner Tilsiter” (IGP) or “Allgäuer Emmentaler” (PDO) are recognized. Thus, the bulk of German production is oriented towards standardized and industrially produced cheeses, essentially fresh products (like “cottage cheese”) and semi-hard products (like ersatz Gouda or Gruyere).

A tragedy is brewing in France…

In France, the king of cheeses remains Emmental. But beware, not the original, the Swiss version. We are talking here about the generic, standard and industrialized version, the purpose of which is to cover our doughs and to make myriads of gratins of all kinds.

But in studying the data provided by the “FranceAgriMer” public office, which depends on the Ministry of Agriculture, an entire section of local culture would be lost. Indeed, the Mozzarella is in the process of cutting the cruppers with the iconic Camembert. Experience for yourself with the current summer period, where you have probably served your guests a tomato-Camembert salad, not sorry a tomato-Mozzarella salad!

For the moment, in volume, Camembert retains its second place in 2021, ahead of Mozzarella and its fourth place. But taking a closer look at the data, it turns out that Normandy’s soft cheese is running out of steam, as it fell from 53,000 tonnes consumed in 2016 to 43,000 last year. For “Mozza”, the trend is the opposite, since its consumption was 24,000 tonnes in 2016, for 38,000 in 2021, an increase of more than 50%.

Another cheese is also about to overtake Camembert, but it is a French stamped product, honor is safe! The raclette, which is in front of the Mozzarella, is getting closer. Here too, raclette parties are in vogue, most often relegating the Camembert to the bottom of the refrigerator.

When the cursor is placed on the value of sales made by the different cheeses, Camembert sank in fifth place. It was overtaken by raclette in 2019 and Mozzarella grabbed fourth place last year. The hour of resistance has come for the small round cheese from the Normandy bocages.

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