California’s cheese producers again kept production at a record pace in 2006, posting total cheese production of 2.2 billion pounds, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). The 2,207,105,000 pounds of cheese that California produced in 2006 was 3.3 percent higher than the 2,137,546,000 pounds produced in 2005, which also set a record.
Cheese production in California has nearly doubled over the past decade, growing from 1.17 billion pounds in 1997, as the state approaches the leadership position for cheese production nationwide.
California milk production also reached a record high in 2006, totaling 38.8 billion pounds, a 3.4 percent increase over 2005, according to the CDFA. California is the nation’s leading milk producer, and nearly half of California’s milk supply goes to cheese production. (It takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese.)
Today, California has several of the world’s largest cheese plants and produces nearly one out of every four pounds of cheese made in the United States.
