LyrArc Article Gist
There is a ton of cheese lying in storage -1.4 billion pounds - as Americans shift to foreign varieties and exports to China and Mexico are hurt by the tariffs war. 

Americans are becoming more adventurous in their cheese eating habits. Many say they cannot stand eating processed cheese anymore. Processed cheese consumption is going down just as foreign cheese varieties are picking up strongly. Mozzarella cheese is up and cheddar cheeses is down with mozzarella popular in pizzas. 

 Cheese producers such as Sargento in Wisconsin are shifting to Gouda, a Dutch variety and other European cheeses as they adjust to the changing habits of Americans tired of processed stuff including processed cheeses. 

Cheesemakers from Ireland and Quebec and local makers in Wisconsin were ramping up their production of cheese when the trade tariffs with China and Mexico hit dairy products. Cheese exports to China are down 63%. The result is that 1.4 billion pounds of cheese are now in storage in cold storage warehouses. Americans still eat a record 37 pounds of cheese every year, but processed cheese per capita is now half of what it was in 2006. Netherlands based Gouda producer Campina is expanding in the U.S. to meet the demand for gouda and other varieties. 

Dairy farmers that supply cheese makers are hurt. Milk prices are down around 40% from a 2014 peak. 600 dairy farms closed in Wisconsin in 2018 alone.