Every Swiss person consumed an average of around 22,9 kilograms of cheese throughout the whole of 2022 - that’s equivalent to most airlines’ check-in suitcase allowance, two office chairs, or even a medium-sized dog's worth of cheese! Despite the Swiss eating a hefty amount of cheese in the last year, the numbers are just a little lower than the whopping 23,2 kilograms consumed by every Swiss resident in 2021.
A press release from a number of Swiss cheese manufacturing and advocacy groups has revealed, in quite specific detail, the amount of cheese bought and sold in Switzerland throughout the past year. In total, people in Switzerland consumed 204.000 tonnes of imported and domestic cheese throughout 2022, totalling 22,9 kilograms of fromage per person.
Demand for both soft and quark cheeses has increased in Switzerland in the past year, but demand for most other types of cheese has actually fallen. Despite this, in the past 15 years, the consumption of semi-hard cheeses in Switzerland has increased from 5,72 kilograms to 6,42 kilograms per person.
It might not come as a surprise, but the Swiss are big fans of their homemade Swiss cheese. 64,3 percent of cheese consumed by people in Switzerland was manufactured in the country, though some foreign cheeses such as mozzarella remain popular.
People in Switzerland are also consuming more cheese produced from goats’ milk. Between 2007 and 2022, the consumption of sheep, goat and buffalo milk cheeses increased by 54 percent.