Imports of cheese are increasing sharply

Published: 24.10.20, 21:00 The Nation, Fredrik Borchgrevink Lange

Imported cheese now accounts for 16.5 percent of sales in Norway. That worries Tine.

Importen fra utlandet er i dag den største konkurrenten til Tine, og konkurransen er hardest med ostene. Foto: Siri Juell Rasmussen

Imports from abroad are today Tine's biggest competitor, and the competition is fiercest with the cheeses.

The import of cheese has increased sharply in the first half of the year, Tine explains in a video on their website member pages.

Imported cheese now accounts for 16.5 percent of sales in Norway. In a normal year, cross-border trade comes on top of that, but the corona pandemic means that its effect is significantly reduced.

- The ordinary import of cheese increased by as much as 9 per cent in the first half of the year. We think that is demanding. There is a lot of milk in a kilo of cheese, says Tine's subject manager for politics and community relations, Helle Huseby, in the video.

If you add substitute cheese on top, Norwegian dairy farmers miss out on producing 135 million liters of milk.

- It is a bit frightening that cheese imports are increasing. About 16 percent of our consumption of cheese is imported. This means that we have to work hard for Norwegian milk to be competitive in the face of imported milk, points out Lise Sandsbråten, who is also head of policy and public relations at Tine. Advertisement

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Of the imported cheeses, fresh cheeses, feta cheeses and special cheeses have seen the greatest increase, with respectively 19, 16 and 10 per cent.

Grated cheese has increased from 801 to 854 tonnes. This is an increase of seven percent.

Imports of hard and semi-hard cheeses are also increasing a lot. From 970 to 1024 tonnes represents an increase of six per cent.

- It is also demanding. There are cheeses that directly compete with our Norvegia, Gauda and so on, says Huseby.