Say Cheese–China's New Obsession
"Cheese is finally breaking into the world’s fastest-growing consumer market."
When Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee led a trade delegation to China in 2007, we were given a presentation in Beijing by Mr. Daniel Chan of the U.S. Dairy Export Council. One of the graphs that he talked about was this one:
This graph shows that cheese consumption in Japan and Korea was basically nonexistent before those countries hosted the Olympics in 1964 and 1988, respectively. Cheese was developed by Middle East and European cultures (more info). Asian cultures did not really know about cheese or develop a taste for cheese until their societies became open to the rest of the world. The Olympics were a major milestone in that process of opening up to the rest of the world.
We visited China as they were preparing to host the 2008 Olympics. The USDEC was hoping that cheese consumption in China would take off after the Olympics, as it did in Japan and Korea.
It looks like the USDEC's hope is coming true! Now if we can just get articles like the one in The Daily Beast to talk about Northeast cheese instead of Wisconsin cheese...
