Cheese Report 2026: Financial challenges - and opportunities

We have all had multiple conversations with people spanning all corners of the industry who, despite the challenging nature of the cheese and dairy industry, say that they do what they do for the love of it. For the love of cheese, for the love of the artistry of artisanal cheese, and for the love of supporting their local communities of cheesemakers and customers.

While many dairy farmers have pulled the plug on their operations due to rising costs and frustrations with Government, many are doggedly determined to carry on and evolve or feed into the UK’s astounding cheese sector. Cheese counters across the UK are also still reeling from the ban on French raw milk cheeses, a topic so longstanding it was covered in last year’s report, but retailers are being creative to recommend British and other alternatives to their customers while waiting with bated breath for French raw milk cheeses’ return…

From milk prices – most recently affected by this summer’s heatwaves and currently sitting at 38-48ppl [milkprices.com] – to the cost of production, wages and the end product, many of the major challenges facing the industry in 2026 are financial.

Financial challenges - and opportunities

According to Perry Wakeman of Rennet & Rind, “the honest answer is that the challenges and the opportunities are often the same thing looked at from two angles. Costs are the obvious pressure. Energy, wages, the rise in National Insurance, the price of the cheese itself as farms deal with their own rising input costs. Nobody in this trade is finding it cheaper to do business than they were a couple of years ago. And customers feel it too, so there is real care needed in how you price and what you ask people to pay for.”

It helps to approach the situation proactively, he continues. “That is exactly where the opportunity sits. When money is tight, people spend it more deliberately. They want the thing to be worth it. A supermarket can put a ‘premium’ sticker on a block of Cheddar, but it cannot tell you which farm it came from, how long it has been maturing, or why this wheel tastes different from the one next to it. That is the ground we can win on. Knowledge, service, and genuine curation are the things a big retailer cannot replicate, and they matter more now, not less.”

“One of the biggest challenges is making sure the difference between specialist cheese and commodity cheese is clear to consumers,” advises Jonny Crickmore, director of Fen Farm Dairy.

“Specialist cheese naturally costs more, so it’s important that people understand why. That means telling the story behind the cheese, explaining how it is handmade, the craftsmanship involved, the provenance of the milk, and the people behind the product. Communicating that added value is essential.”

Two game-changing tips for cheesemongers

Indeed, with supermarkets raising their game when it comes to their cheese selections – working with premium wholesalers and sometimes having direct links to the cheesemakers themselves, it is vital that indies make a name for themselves. “The two things I would say to any independent right now are: be nimble, and never underestimate service,” says Perry.

“On the first, we are small enough to turn quickly, and that is a genuine advantage. If you think our costs have gone up, imagine that multiplied across hundreds of sites at one of the big commercial operations. They cannot move fast. We can. So look hard at your own numbers. Your staffing levels, your opening hours, your sales data. Work out what is actually selling, what is working, and throw everything you have at it. The shop that pays attention to its own figures and adjusts week to week is the one that comes through a tight year in good shape.

“Service matters more now than it ever has. When someone is parting with hard earned money, they want to know it is going somewhere good, to a good home. Make them understand that. The ace up your sleeve is that nearly every penny spent in your shop either goes straight back into the local economy or, failing that, to the UK exchequer. And yes, I can hear the groans, but that is money going towards the things we all rely on. A nurse, a police officer, the playground down the road. Compare that to a lot of internationally owned businesses, who have a habit of raising an invoice in Luxembourg towards the end of the tax year so that profit, and the tax that should come with it, quietly disappears. Spend it with your independent and it stays where it does some good. That is worth saying out loud to people.”

A potential skills cliff-edge?

“Some of the biggest challenges facing the specialist cheese industry in 2026 are quite different from those affecting the larger industrial or commodity cheese sector,” suggests Jonny.

“There aren’t that many people in the specialist cheese sector, and many businesses are built around the individual who founded them. As cheesemakers retire, there is a real risk that some of these businesses will disappear because they are much harder to pass on than larger industrial operations. Ensuring knowledge, skills and businesses are transferred successfully to the next generation is therefore one of the key challenges facing our industry.”