Cheeses from Argentina

Abstract

The dairy industry in Argentina is highly developed and is one of the most modern of Latin America. It is concentrated in the central and east-central parts of the country, in Córdoba, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires provinces.Argentina is among the top 10 countries cheese producers in the world and in the second position in Latin America after Brazil. Cheese is by far the main dairy product as it accounts for approximately 45% of national milk production. Although most of the milk is processed in large and medium scale dairy facilities, numerous small and micro-scale companies make almost exclusively cheese, which process about 20% of the total milk production. Cheese production has grown significantly in the last decade, mainly due to a sustained increase in consumption. Argentina is the country with the highest consumption of cheeses of Latin America. Soft cheeses - Cremoso cheese and others - represent more than half of the total cheese production, followed by the semi-hard cheese varieties (30%) ? being Pategrás cheese the more representative; hard cheeses (Reggianito among others) account of 15% of total production.