WCMA Notes: Cheese Markets Robust in Unsettled Times

Cheese manufacturers are bullish on sales even as tight labor conditions challenge the industry’s ability to make and deliver dairy products at optimal capacity.  WCMA discovered positive trends in recent sales data and in discussions with leading cheese producers and processors.

Foodservice Sales

Cheese sales into foodservice vary by channel, but overall, demand is good.

At the high end of the market, sit-down and fine dining restaurants have seen customers return in recent months, but fewer restaurants are open and for many locations, hours are reduced. The app Open Table offers sophisticated data on the sit-down dining sector. As of September 22, about 84 percent of U.S. restaurants using Open Table were accepting reservations, and looking at data for recent Saturday evenings, restaurants were seating as many patrons as the same day in 2019.

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