U.S. Cheese Production Sees Growth In December 2023
December U.S. cheese production, excluding cottage cheese, totaled 1.210 billion pounds, up 0.9% from the 1.199 billion pounds of cheese produced in December 2022, according to data released the week of January 29th, 2024 by USDA’s Natural Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). December cheese production was up 4.4% from the 1.159 billion pounds produced in November and up 1.1% on an average daily basis.
Trends In U.S. Cheese Production
The cumulative 12-month cheese production total for 2023 was 14.106 billion pounds, up 0.3% from the 2022 year-end total of 14.063 billion pounds.
Italian-type cheese production in December totaled 509.5 million pounds, up 0.3% from December 2022. Production of Mozzarella, the largest component of Italian-type cheese production, totaled 403.6 million pounds in December, up 1.0% from a year earlier.
American-type cheese production in December totaled 488.1 million pounds, up 0.5% from December 2022. Production of Cheddar, the largest component of American-type cheese, totaled 336.5 million pounds, down 2.0% from December 2022.
Wisconsin was the leading cheese-producing state with 300.4 million pounds produced in December, up 0.6% from December 2022. California followed with 214.6 million pounds produced in December, up 2.7% from a year earlier.
December Butter Production Surges
U.S. production of butter totaled 196.3 million pounds in December, up 4.4% from December 2022. December butter production was up 18.4% from November’s 165.8 million pounds and up 14.6% on an average daily basis. California was the leading butter-producing state with 59.5 million pounds produced in December, up 1.0% from December 2022. Cumulative butter production for the 12 months of 2023 totaled 2.114 billion pounds, up 2.7% from annual butter production in 2022.
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Source: Cheese Market News