05/15/08 Exporting US cheese to Japan

The US Dairy Export Council is pursuing growth opportunities for US cheese worldwide, including Asia. Exports to Japan are up thanks to new products. The head of US DEC activities in Japan is Jeff McNeill. MCNEILL "In the last decade, the US has been very involved in developing some wonderful new cheese varieties  specialty cheeses, artisan cheeses." McNeill says Japanese consumers were familiar with US cream cheese but not with other American cheeses. So US DEC went to work on a marketing plan that promoted high value US artisan cheese in the Japanese market. MCNEILL "To date in the last year, we've introduced about 20 new specialty cheeses and they're now on sale in Japan for the first time which is great to be able to go into some of the supermarkets there or into some of the upscale restaurants and be able to order or buy US cheeses. " The result; US Dairy Export's marketing efforts with support from the dairy checkoff helped increase US cheese shipments to Japan by 30 percent last year with a volume gain of nearly 23 hundred tons. That makes Japan the second largest export customer for US cheese. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott