Feta cheese, Salad cheese | Tine takes up the fight against Danish imports

The Swedish-Danish Arla group is one of Europe’s largest dairy companies. Even in Norway, which has significant customs protection, Arla has found its way onto store shelves.

In Norway, it is particularly for grated cheese and the so-called salad cheese that Arla has taken a good share of the market.

Figures from Statistics Norway show that imports of salad cheese and feta cheese – the latter can only be produced in Greece – have increased significantly. In recent years, imports have been around 3,000 tonnes a year. This is about a fifth of all cheese imports to Norway.

The vast majority comes from Danish cow’s milk. About 10 percent comes from the real Greek feta cheese.

– We take up the fight

Now, however, Tine is taking up the competition with the Danes, and has launched a Norwegian salad cheese that is based on milk from both goats and cows, like in Greece.

Initially, there are two different types of feta cheese on sale, one with chilli and fennel and another salad cheese with herbs and garlic.

– We have spent a lot of time developing the flavor and the cheese at our facility in Selbu, and are very proud to be able to present a completely new Norwegian salad cheese, said facility manager in Selbu, Heidi Kristin Mathisen, when Tine launched the product in February.

Hedda Frivold, brand manager at Tine, says that they want to take a bite out of the imports.

– Tine wants to take a larger share of the everyday dinner, and this is one of the bigger launches from Tine in 2024 where we take up the fight against the imported varieties.

Tine has previously been unsuccessful on the consumer market when it comes to salad cheese. In 2005, Tine Kybos was launched, but without gaining momentum in grocery stores. Now Tine hopes that they will succeed.

– We see that Norwegian consumers think it is increasingly important to have food that is produced in Norway. Therefore, we strongly believe that the new launch will be a good challenger to the imported cheese in Norwegian grocery stores, says Frivold.

25 percent goat’s milk

Local cheeseries such as Valdresmeieriet and Gangstad Gårdsysteri have for several years produced salad cheese using Norwegian milk, but the products have had a much higher price than Arla’s version, and have not been able to compete with the Danes.

Tine’s new salad cheese will consist of 25 per cent goat’s milk and 75 per cent cow’s milk. Currently, a need for 200,000 liters of goat’s milk and 600,000 liters of cow’s milk is estimated for the planned production.

– But of course we hope that the product will be well received so that the need will increase.

– Thanks to skilled Norwegian goat farmers who have invested systematically in breeding, the quality of goat’s milk has improved significantly in recent years. It is an important part of Tine’s strategy to increase the use of goat’s milk both by developing existing and completely new goat’s milk products, she adds.