EU trade flows · extra-EU

All trade flows

Cheese — total

CN codes: 0406

Latest customs month

May 2026

  • Imports · last 12 months

    205kt

    +7.8% vs the year before

  • Imports · avg unit value

    5,966€/t

  • Exports · last 12 months

    1,444kt

    +3.3% vs the year before

  • Exports · avg unit value

    6,156€/t

What the EU imports

Monthly imports

11 kt19 kt27 ktJan 2015Jan 2017Jan 2019Jan 2021Jan 2023Jan 2025
May 2026
12-month average17 kt
Imports17 kt
Imports12-month average

Where it comes from · last 12 months

  1. 🇬🇧United Kingdom116 kt56%
  2. 🇨🇭Switzerland65 kt31%
  3. 🇳🇿New Zealand5.5 kt3%
  4. 🇳🇴Norway5.4 kt3%
  5. 🇺🇦Ukraine2.9 kt1%
  6. 🇮🇸Iceland2.8 kt1%
  7. 🇺🇸United States2.5 kt1%
  8. 🇷🇸Serbia2.3 kt1%
  9. 🇹🇷Türkiye1.3 kt1%
  10. 🇧🇦Bosnia & Herzegovina1.0 kt1%
  11. All other countries662 t0%

Partner concentration (HHI): 4,195 · high

Countries outside a product's top twelve are counted under "all other countries" — the totals and shares stay honest, the list stays readable.

What the EU exports

Monthly exports

87 kt108 kt130 ktJan 2015Jan 2017Jan 2019Jan 2021Jan 2023Jan 2025
May 2026
12-month average120 kt
Exports119 kt
Exports12-month average

Where it goes · last 12 months

  1. 🇬🇧United Kingdom467 kt32%
  2. 🇺🇸United States138 kt9%
  3. 🇯🇵Japan86 kt6%
  4. 🇨🇭Switzerland75 kt5%
  5. 🇰🇷South Korea48 kt3%
  6. 🇸🇦Saudi Arabia46 kt3%
  7. 🇺🇦Ukraine44 kt3%
  8. 🇨🇦Canada31 kt2%
  9. 🇨🇳China30 kt2%
  10. 🇦🇺Australia28 kt2%
  11. All other countries418 kt29%

Partner concentration (HHI): 2,047 · moderate

Countries outside a product's top twelve are counted under "all other countries" — the totals and shares stay honest, the list stays readable.

Unit values

Declared value divided by declared weight, in euros per tonne — the closest thing a customs record has to a price. Import and export are not the same market: one is landed cost at the EU border, the other is border value on the way out.

€ 3,107€ 4,922€ 6,737Jan 2015Jan 2017Jan 2019Jan 2021Jan 2023Jan 2025
May 2026
Import unit value€ 5,335
Export unit value€ 5,902
Import unit valueExport unit value

The seasonal shape

The same twelve months laid over each other, per direction — this year drawn against the three before it, so a spring running ahead of last spring shows immediately.

Imports by month

131619JFMAMJJASOND
December
202316 kt
202415 kt
202518 kt
2023202420252026kt

Exports by month

96115134JFMAMJJASOND
December
2023112 kt
2024115 kt
2025134 kt
2023202420252026kt

Across the Atlantic: the US record

The same product through American customs — the Census Bureau files about a month faster than Comext, in dollars, under its own ten-digit lines. Volumes compare on the HS6 root both nomenclatures share; the codes beneath it do not.

  • Exports · last 12 months

    687kt

    +26.2% vs the year before

  • Imports · last 12 months

    193kt

    −9.9% vs the year before

  • United States

    Jun 2026

Exports, 12-month average — EU vs US

31 kt72 kt113 ktJan 2015Jan 2017Jan 2019Jan 2021Jan 2023Jan 2025
Jun 2026
United States57 kt
EU-27United States

Where it comes from

  1. Italy40 kt · 21%
  2. France28 kt · 14%
  3. Netherlands15 kt · 8%
  4. Spain13 kt · 7%
  5. Ireland12 kt · 6%

Where it goes

  1. Mexico233 kt · 34%
  2. Korea, South92 kt · 13%
  3. Japan57 kt · 8%
  4. Australia48 kt · 7%
  5. Canada25 kt · 4%

The same shipment, two customs records

Two customs services, one trade, and rarely the same number. Small gaps are timing and freight. Large ones mean something structural: an export is filed the moment the cargo leaves, while an import is only filed once customs clears it. Where the gap is wide, our reading is that goods are waiting in port for clearance, which can take a long time — but that is an assumption, not something the customs record proves. Re-exports, transshipment and differing tariff-line coverage sit in between as well. Neither book is wrong; knowing which one a counterparty is quoting is the point.

Europe → United States · May 2026

As the EU files it
138 kt
As the US files it
137 kt
Gap
0.7 kt 1%

United States → Europe · May 2026

As the EU files it
2.5 kt
As the US files it
3.7 kt
Gap
+1.2 kt +32%

US quantities are aggregated from ten-digit HTS/Schedule B lines that differ from the EU's CN lines beneath the shared six-digit root; values stay in dollars on purpose. Lines filed in litres are converted at 1.03 kg/l.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, USA Trade Online — public domain, credited as a courtesy. Retrieved 14 Aug 2026.

Extra-EU trade of the EU-27 aggregate. Flows between member states are a separate record and are never mixed in.

Customs data is living data: recent months are provisional and can be revised for a year or more. Every revision the daily ingest sees is recorded, never silently overwritten.

Source: Eurostat (Comext, DS-045409), processing Get Fair Dairy — data vintage Jul 2026, last ingested 14 Aug 2026. · Sources & licences