Cheese stocks in Russia increased by 21%

The Russian cheese market is faced with a situation where, with stable demand, manufacturers' warehouses are overflowing with products. Cheese production in the first quarter increased by only 3% and amounted to 210.2 thousand tons. This was announced on May 6 by the National Union of Milk producers Soyuzmoloko.

"So far, we do not see a pronounced rejection of cheeses," Leonid Ardalonov, director of analytics at NTech, is quoted by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

According to him, the decline in sales of semi—hard cheeses is not indicative, but more modern products are growing, such as cottage cheese (+8% in physical terms).

At the same time, stocks in warehouses increased by 21% year—on-year by the beginning of April, to 77.1 thousand tons, which is significantly higher than the average values of the last five years.

Artem Belov, CEO of Soyuzmolok, called the record volume of raw milk production in 2025, the maximum in three decades, the main factor in the accumulation of stocks. Processors are forced to increase cheese production, but domestic demand is growing more slowly.

Experts attribute the increase in stocks to a record volume of raw milk production in 2025. According to experts, processors have increased the production of cheeses, but domestic demand does not keep pace with supply.

Additional pressure on the market is exerted by an increase in imports from Belarus, as well as a slowdown in exports. As a result, a structural gap has formed between production and consumption.

According to analysts, the total demand for cheeses at the beginning of 2026 remains approximately at the level of last year. At the same time, there is a multidirectional trend: retail sales are gradually growing, while the HoReCa segment (hotels, restaurants and cafes) is declining.

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On May 5, the press service of Agroexport reported that Russia was able to increase its revenue from fish and seafood exports in the first quarter of 2026 — over $1.7 billion was received from these operations during the specified period, which is 19% higher than in the same period of 2025. Ilya Ilyushin, the head of the organization, commenting on these values, said that fish and seafood, among other items, are the "drivers" of domestic exports from the agro-industrial sector.