Natural cheese sales have been steady for subcategories such as slices and shreds, but others (crumbles, chunks) are struggling. Meanwhile, cheese spreads/balls saw a sales boost in the processed cheese category.
The natural cheese category saw dollar sales drop 0.2% to $12.9 billion and unit sales increase 0.3% to 3.9 billion for the 52 weeks ending Oct. 8, 2017, according to Chicago-based market research firm Information Resources Inc. (IRI). Despite a couple of subcategories seeing a sales boost, the processed cheese category still saw sales declines overall — dollar sales dropped 1.7% to $2.9 billion and unit sales decreased 3.4% to 755.5 million.