Natural cheese production continues to trend up. Bold flavors and artisan cheeses draw consumers, and processors look to grow sales with portability and snacking options.
As interesting flavor options, artisan cheeses, portion-control and portability continue to trend up for cheese, so does natural cheese production.
Based on data collected from SymphonyIRI Group, Chicago, the natural cheese segment saw a 6.5% increase in dollar sales for the 52 weeks ended August 12, 2012 (see table). The biggest increase to the category came from refrigerated grated cheese, with sales up 17.5% and units up 14.7%. Alongside that, natural slices were up 8.3% in sales and 7.4% in units, natural shredded was up 8.7% in sales, with units up 1.5%, and natural crumbled saw an 8.3% increase in sales and units were up 4.8%. Keeping in tune with the trend towards portability, natural string cheese also saw a sales increase of 8.1% and units were up 0.6%.