Global cheese sales are growing by 4.4% annually since 2012 and are expected to exceed $100bn (€92bn) by 2019 according to a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR).

TMR, a market research firm with offices in the US and India, believes the combination of growth in the fast food market with the ability of consumers to spend money on fine cheeses is driving cheese sales worldwide.

Even though demand growth in countries such as China, South Korea and Brazil has increased in these areas, it is still the big players that are driving the growth. TMR’s report shows the EU with a 38.8% share of the global cheese market, with North America’s share at 32.7%.

Although Europe is the largest market in the world, the US is the largest producer of cheese at 5.17t in 2014.

Asia Pacific is seeing the largest growth over the period of the report. This region is expecting growth of 7.9% annually until 2019.