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Mozzarella cheese overtakes Camembert’s popularity in France

By on November 6, 2021

For the first time in cheese-loving France, sales from Camembert continues to decline by 3% year on year.

In contrast, “the sales of Italian mozzarella, is steadily growing by 5% annually,”  revealed Fabrice Collier, president of Normandy Camembert Cheese Manufacturers – Syndicat normand des fabricants de camemberts (SNFC) – in an interview with French online news site Le Figaro.

“From the beginning of the year up until September 11th, we sold 29,230 tons of camembert in France, compared to 33,170 tons of mozzarella.”

According to the French agriculture ministry, camembert is the only cheese variety among the top five that has experienced a consumption decline in the last 5 years.

WHAT CHANGED?

Camembert’s fading popularity in France is attributed to the changing taste of its class-conscious new generation.

According to Mike Bija who runs La Cremerie du 17, a modern cheese bar in Paris, “Mozzarella has caught on with the young crowd because Camembert is perceived as old-fashioned food and associated with the lower class.”

While the once-popular cheese from Normandy has fallen out of favor in France, it is still a popular cheese platter item in Japan.

Japan may not be consuming as much cheese as the average European does but a 12.4% increase in sales from imported cheese since 2017 is a positive sign that cheese is here to stay.
Kyodo Gakusha Shintoku farm based in Hokkaido, has been attempting to produce a local version of Italian mozzarella, French camembert cheese, and other artisanal cheese types since the 80s. Turophiles however say, Japanese cheese’s extra focus on texture over aroma puts European cheese’s up in the hierarchy of cheese flavours.

 

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