When we last covered the retail cheese segment in a Market Trends report — back in April of this year — the picture was very Gouda across the board. Dollar sales for the natural cheese category had jumped 20.8% to $16,417.6 million during the 52 weeks ending Jan. 24, 2021, according to data from Chicago-based market research firm IRI. And unit sales had risen 12.8% to 4,588.8 million.
Dollar sales for the processed cheese category, meanwhile, had climbed 17.8% to $3,329.4 million. Unit sales had increased 10.8% to 798.7 million.