DENVER — Millennials are causing a cheese surplus … but only for cheese giants, and it’s not totally their fault.
That’s according to Nora Weiser from the American Cheese Society based out of Denver.
She was weighing in on what the U.S.D.A. said is a 1.4 billion pound cheese surplus in the country. Of course, you can’t totally blame millennials.
Milk production is up 13 percent over the past 10 years, and dairy farmers who don’t want their milk to go to waste make cheese.
The second reason is that millennials prefer artisanal cheese over the big names like Kraft and Sargento. And these big guys are the ones really experiencing the cheese surplus.
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For the smaller players in the cheese industry, there’s no better time to partake in the dairy business.
“Right after our Christmas season, Christmas is huge for us,” Alexandra Bassell, a cheesemonger at the Truffle Cheese Shop, said. “We blow through entire coolers of cheese.”
“All of these cheeses are painstakingly made by hand. I would not call them mass-produced at all. They’re made with lots of love.”
Another thing to add is that international exports of cheese are also down, according to MarketWatch.
Cheese surpluses have happened before. There was one in 2016, when the U.S. cheese inventory hit a massively high level.
The USDA ultimately bought 11 million pounds of cheese to alleviate this not-so-grate problem.
To do your part to alleviate the shortage, check out previous 9NEWS cheese content -- including recipes!!!! -- below: