Dairy & Cheese importers and distributors in Europe
For owners & export directors at food producers
Pick your country below. Each guide names the buyers who source dairy & cheese there.
IN SHORT
Dairy & Cheese importers and distributors in Europe are the companies that resell dairy & cheese. They include dairy distributors & importers, retail category buyers and food producers (ingredient). Typical products are cheese, butter & cream, yoghurt & desserts and milk powder. Buyers and suppliers meet at Anuga in Cologne. We publish buyer guides for Austria, Czechia, Germany and Switzerland.
How to find dairy & cheese importers and distributors in Europe
Dairy & Cheese importers and distributors in Europe buy dairy & cheese to resell. They are not one kind of company. The buyer groups are dairy distributors & importers, retail category buyers and food producers (ingredient). Typical products are cheese, butter & cream, yoghurt & desserts and milk powder.
Buyers and suppliers meet at Anuga in Cologne. A fair runs for a few days, once a year or less. You can reach the same buyers all year instead. What a buyer checks first is not the same in every country. Certificates, labels and pack sizes change with the market. The 4 country guides below name the buyers and what they want. We publish a country page only when we know that trade well. You approve every company before we write to anyone.
WHO BUYS DAIRY & CHEESE
The buyer types for dairy & cheese
Each group buys for a different reason. Choosing the wrong one is the most common reason a first export try fails.
Dairy distributors & importers
Wholesalers with chilled transport who supply shops and restaurants.
Retail category buyers
The people who choose the dairy and delicatessen range.
Food producers (ingredient)
Factories that buy dairy as an ingredient for their own products.
Typical products: cheese · butter & cream · yoghurt & desserts · milk powder
Trade fairs: Anuga (Cologne)
GUIDES
Dairy & Cheese markets we cover
Each guide names the buyers, what they check before a listing, and how the trade is organised.
Austria — Dairy & Cheese buyers
Austrian dairy converted to feed without genetic modification back in 2010, right across the sector. That single decision sets the bar for anything imported. Add hay milk, a strong organic share and farmer-owned cooperatives, and the shelf is already well defended.
Czechia — Dairy & Cheese buyers
More than half the cheese Czechs eat is already imported, and the share keeps rising. The country ships raw milk out and buys finished dairy back, mostly from Germany, Poland and Slovakia. So the category is open, but you are taking share inside it rather than opening it.
Germany — Dairy & Cheese buyers
Germany is the largest dairy market in the EU. It makes a lot of milk itself, but it still buys imported cheese, butter and dairy specialities. Importers, supermarket buyers, catering firms and food factories all buy them.
Switzerland — Dairy & Cheese buyers
Cheese is the one farm product Switzerland has opened fully. Since 2007, cheese from the EU enters duty-free, with no import licence and no volume limit. Butter, milk powder and yoghurt are the opposite, and move through small quotas only a Swiss firm can bid for.
Your country is not listed for dairy & cheese?
That does not mean no. A guide goes live only when we know that trade well. We open new markets and categories all the time. Ask us, and you will get a straight answer about whether we can help.
Ready to meet Europe's dairy & cheese buyers?
Book a 30-minute Discovery Call. We look at your products and your buyers. If we can’t help, we’ll say so.
Book a Discovery CallFixed fee — no commission · First meetings 2–3 weeks after we start writing · Min. 10 meetings guaranteedReviewed by the ProspectX export team, led by founder Casper Morawski (LinkedIn) · Last reviewed August 2026.