In the first half of this year exports of dairy products from Italy to Japan grew in volume by 21.3%, compared to the same period in 2018, reaching more than 5.8 million kg.
The effects of the EPA, the free trade agreement that came into force in February 2019 and which, according to Assolatte, pushed Italian dairy exports up 20% in just five months, were therefore immediate. In other words, within a year, Italian firms have sent more than over 1 million kg of Italian cheeses to Tokyo.
The growth of Italian dairy exports goes with the increase in knowledge of our dairy products, explains Assolatte. If historically the forerunners in Japan were melted cheeses, now consumers begin to know and appreciate even the great Italian cheeses with spun, soft, semi-hard and hard dough.
Italy is Japan's leading supplier of blue cheese (ahead of Denmark and France), with a market share of 52.8% and is the fifth largest supplier of dairy products (after Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the Netherlands), with a market share of 7%.
Mozzarella is still the most exported Italian cheese in Japan (1.7 million kg) and also the top performer of last year (+ 86.4%), but Assolatte reports also the very positive trends of other types of cheese, in particular Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano (+ 12.6%), Gorgonzola (+ 9.0%) and grated (+ 7.0%).