For the first time since 2009, consumption of Norwegian cheese fell (by 2.1%) last year.
At the same time, the trend is that Norwegians drink less milk.
While milk consumption has fallen for many years, there has been a positive development for cheese consumption since the millennium, reported Nationen newspaper.
“We have had single years that have gone down, but since 2000 we have had an upward trend,” said Director, Ida Berg Hauge, of the Information Office for Dairy Products. She thinks the decline gives cause for concern both for dairy farmers, and for public health.
“It is worrying because cheese consumption has maintained Norwegian milk production, and the nutrients we consume. When there are many who don’t drink milk, they have received the nutrients via cheese”, she said to the newspaper.
Despite last year’s decline, we consumed 84.7 million tonnes of Norwegian cheese last year, which is approximately 16 kilos per person. Additionally, 2.7 kg of imported cheese per person.
That figure has increased each year for the past ten years, but the total cheese consumption per Norwegian still fell by a few hundred grams per person from 2016 to last year.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
Perhaps that is because so much Norwegian cheese is bland and boring.