Korea Cheese Import Market
Korea's cheese imports have nearly quadrupled in fourteen months. Who supplies them, from where, and how fast the market is moving.
Updated Sep 2026 · from official Korean import declarations
- Korea logged 7,374 cheese import declarations in the last six months, up 81% on the six months before.
- United States is the largest origin with 34.3% of all shipments (4,349).
- France is growing fastest among established origins — up 46% over the last three months against the three before.
- Australia is losing ground, down 20% over the same window.
- 28 overseas suppliers shipped cheese to Korea for the first time in the last three months, against 4 new buyers — new entrants are competing for existing accounts, not new ones.
- Sep 2026 shipments were down 47% on the month before.
Monthly shipments — cheese
the 6 before
Each declaration is one customs filing, not one container — a useful proxy for how often a market is being served rather than for tonnage.
Where it comes from
Origin share and momentum
| Origin | Shipments | Share | 3m vs prior 3m |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 4,349 | 34.3% | ▲ 2% |
| Italy | 2,190 | 17.3% | ▲ 34% |
| France | 2,027 | 16.0% | ▲ 46% |
| Germany | 789 | 6.2% | ▼ 14% |
| New Zealand | 646 | 5.1% | ▲ 9% |
| Australia | 579 | 4.6% | ▼ 20% |
| Netherlands | 550 | 4.3% | ▲ 15% |
| Denmark | 533 | 4.2% | ▼ 11% |
| Japan | 142 | 1.1% | ▲ 29% |
| Spain | 131 | 1.0% | ▼ 11% |
Growth is suppressed where the earlier window holds fewer than 20 shipments — a move from three to nine is not a trend.
Top suppliers to Korea
| # | Overseas manufacturer | Ships |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agropur Inc. | 605 |
| 2 | FONTERRA LIMITED | 598 |
| 3 | SAPUTO CHEESE USA INC. (TULARE-PAIGE) | 482 |
| 4 | SCHREIBER FOODS, INC. | 292 |
| 5 | FROMAGERIES BEL PRODUCTION FRANCE | 259 |
| 6 | LES FROMAGES DU MOULIN | 236 |
| 7 | HAZELEGER KAAS B.V. | 210 |
| 8 | Prairie Farms Dairy.Inc. | 208 |
| 9 | LEPRINO FOODS COMPANY | 204 |
| 10 | BELGIOIOSO CHEESE INC. | 196 |
- 1Wuka Qit Zutesez Geb900
- 2Ziroveda Hepidozunef678
- 3Burelo Napik580
- 4Wiq Zika Fus Mid552
- 5Jiz Gepoputo Pih Roq500
- 6Kiza Foji Kop Vud406
- 7Cavo Pow Sad Kaz336
189 Korean companies import cheese.
This report does not name them.
KoreanImportData tracks every one of them — who they buy from, which origins they switched to, how often they ship and when they last imported. Search the full register by product, company or country, in English.
Every account starts free with five lookups — no card required.
These twelve are the biggest categories, not the only ones. The register covers every food, beverage, nutraceutical and packaging item type Korea imports.
Request a custom reportMethod and coverage
Figures are counts of individual import declarations lodged with the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, covering Jul 2025 to Sep 2026. This report covers the official item types Cheese (natural), Processed cheese, Imitation cheese — matched on the declared item type only, never on product-name text, so unrelated goods cannot be pulled in by a keyword.
Origin is the declared country of manufacture, not the country the goods were shipped from, which can differ where a distributor re-exports.
Company and product names are translated or transliterated from the official Korean record and may be imperfect; the Korean record is authoritative. One manufacturer can appear under more than one plant or spelling.
The register is reloaded monthly and this page is rebuilt with it. Figures here will differ from a report you read last month, by design.