What’s going on with the Australian cheese industry? - Produce Awards

Aug 25, 2025

In the wake of Section28’s shock closure, we take a look at the challenges currently being faced by the Australian cheese industry.

Australian artisan cheese-lovers could be forgiven for feeling a little downcast of late. In April, Section28 Artisan Cheeses – famed for its Alpine-style hard and semi-hard cheeses – announced that it was closing after 10 wonderful years. It’s expected the last wheels will be rolling out the door this month.

Many Aussie turophiles have been struck with a sense of unease – what is happening to our cheese industry? We had already lost the iconic Holy Goat Cheese back in January of 2024, which left a La Luna ring-sized hole in all our hearts. And beyond our greatest artisan cheeses, even Tasmania’s King Island Dairy had recently been threatened with closure, saved only at the last moment by a hail Mary purchase by two Australian businessmen.

The deal with dairy

While eating good cheese is a breeze, producing it in Australia is not an easy task, by any stretch of the stracciatella. The broader Australian dairy industry is currently facing the threat of being drowned out by a wave of imports. Chief executive of the Australian Dairy Products Federation, Janine Waller, recently shared her concerns with the ABC about the increasing dominance of imported cheese and dairy products in Australian supermarkets, saying that in the past year, one-quarter of dairy products sold here were imported ones.

With rising production costs at home making it harder for local producers to compete, imported cheeses are offering cash-strapped Aussie consumers and food businesses a cheaper alternative. It was these pressures that ultimately led to the then-owner of King Island Dairy to announce its closure.

For Section28 owner and cheesemaker Kym Masters, his decision to close was driven both by increased manufacturing costs and reduced sales. Artisan cheese is a niche market, and in a cost-of-living crisis, people are more willing to skip the cheese plate at the end of their meal, or forgo a fancy cheese board at their next dinner party.

But Masters also knew that the decision was the right one for his business.

“We tried a number of different models to see whether we could make it work, but in the end it was always going to be,” he says.

Masters and his team considered investing further to explore potential export markets for generating more sales, but ultimately, the risks were too great.

“The other alternative is we would have to stop investing in our staff, or cut quality,” he says. “Neither of those were options that we thought were in line with what we built the business for. So we made that decision, to exit as gracefully as we could.”

Support systems

Building a cheesemaking business involves a lot of training and hard work, and often a large financial investment. Gerard Callanan of Lilyarra Artisan Cheeses in South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula – who is currently in the running for a 2025 delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Award – believes he’s more fortunate than some in that he already had business experience before he came to cheesemaking. But he is still keenly aware of the challenges that small-scale cheesemakers face.

“We all come into business with different skills, but we almost never come into business with all the skills,” he says. “Having support where we lack is really important.”

This support can come in the form of small business assistance from governments, and resources and advocacy from bodies like the Australian Specialist Cheesemaker’s Association (ASCA), which offers professional guidance and continuing education.

Then there’s support from people like you – the consumer.

Callanan believes there is a need for the broader consumer market to become aware of what they’re really missing out on when it comes to Australian cheese. Because when you taste it, you’ll know it’s worth paying a few extra dollars for.

“Certainly there’s a challenge of educating consumers,” he says. “They can get cheese at the supermarket that tastes pretty good, and they’re happy with that. So [it’s about getting them] seeking out artisan cheese that they can taste and go, ‘Oh my goodness, this is so much better than what I’ve been getting’.”

Long Paddock Cheese Banksia and Driftwood.

A hard road

Just like Callanan, there are a host of other great artisan cheesemakers operating in Australia. And if Alison Lansley, managing director of the delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Award-winning Long Paddock Cheese, has anything to do with it, there will be plenty more on the horizon. Lansley also operates cheesemaking training facility The Cheese School in Castlemaine, Victoria.

Through her work at the school, Lansley (who is also the secretary of ASCA) is always excited to welcome potential new artisan cheesemakers, but she also knows from hard-won experience that they will have a difficult road ahead of them.

“It’s not easy at all,” she says. “It’s never going to be easy. Cheesemaking is intensely difficult to master. It’s probably not dissimilar to our wine industry, but there’s enough critical mass there that it works as a whole, even though some will fail.

“In the cheese industry, we just don’t have that critical mass, so when a Section28 does close down, we really feel it badly.”

Section28 Monforte — The marvellous Monforte, Section28’s award-winning wonder wheel.

Where there’s cheese, there’s hope

But Masters is keen to point out that the end of Section28 is by no means the death knell for Australian artisan cheesemaking.

“I don’t think our experience will be everyone’s experience,” Masters says. “Everyone does it slightly differently. Everyone will choose a different product mix. Everyone will fund themselves in different ways. All of that means there’s 100 different variations of a cheese business. So I don’t think that just because we’ve made a decision to close, it means you can’t do cheesemaking in Australia.”

Callanan remains positive about the future of the industry because there are still so many incredible Australian cheesemakers – and future cheesemakers – out there.

“It’s fantastic to see that there are still passionate people who are going out and giving it a go,” Callanan says. “I think, in the longer term, the weight of those people; it does build momentum.”

Lansley is also feeling optimistic. “Absolutely optimistic,” she says. “It’s our ability to create – to overcome all the problems in the way of creating – such amazing products. I think that’s why we do it.”

However, she also believes that for Australian artisan cheese to truly succeed, the industry – and cheese-loving Australian consumers – must band together. Because the greatest threat to our artisan cheese industry doesn’t lie within our own borders – it comes from overseas.

“The competition for artisan cheesemakers in Australia is not each other; it’s imported cheese,” Lansley says. “That’s the real competition.”

So if you really love Australian cheese, buy Australian cheese. It’s the best – and most delicious – way you can help guarantee its survival.

Section28 is currently selling off the last of its stock, with an online sale offering the public access to cheese normally reserved for restaurants and cheesemongers.