Sweden’s appetite for foreign cheeses, has brought huge victories to Danish and Dutch exporters at the expense of traditional suppliers Germany and France.
While France used to sell Sweden over 2,000 tonnes of cheese annually (2,496 tonnes in 1993), shipments into the country had dropped to just over 1,800 tonnes by 1996. They are reported to have been even lower in 1997. German cheeses are having the same problems, with 3,200 tonnes imported into the country in 1996 compared with 4,100 tonnes three years earlier.
Observers say that cheaper Dutch products are making a big impression