Wisconsin Ag Connection - Another Record Year for State's Specialty Cheese Production

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Another Record Year for State's Specialty Cheese Production
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 05/04/2015

Wisconsin not only remained the number one state in the nation for cheese production in 2014, but it also churned out more specialty cheeses than ever before.

The state's agriculture department announced that local cheesemakers produced 25 percent of the nation's total production of 660 million pounds; and that specialty cheese accounted for 23 percent of that total. That's an increase of nearly 20 percent over 2013.

Of Wisconsin's 127 cheese plants, 91 manufactured at least one type of specialty cheese in 2014. Feta accounted for the largest share of specialty cheese production, with 12 percent of the total. Blue, Hispanic types, specialty Mozzarella, Parmesan Wheel, and specialty Provolone remain other popular varieties. Italian Fontina cheese production rose 27 percent over the previous year, while Romano Wheel production was 20 percent higher.

According to the Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Institute, the nature of specialty cheese is derived from one or more unique qualities, such as exotic origin, particular processing or design, limited supply, unusual application or use, and extraordinary packaging or channel of sale. The common denominator is its very high quality, the Institute says.

Last week, the USDA confirmed that Wisconsin produced 2.91 billion pounds of cheese varieties in 2014. That was higher than the previous record of 2.85 billion pounds set in 2013.

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