Greek feta producers fret over exports after US tariffs

Record ID: 1987935

  • Title: Greek feta producers fret over exports after US tariffs
  • Date: 3rd April 2025
  • Summary: KALAVRITA, GREECE (APRIL 2, 2025) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WORKERS SORTING CHEESE IN THE FACTORY OF THE KALAVRITA COOPERATIVE ON A BELT KALAVRITA COOPERATIVE GENERAL MANAGER KONSTANTINOS LATSIS IN THE COLD ROOM (SOUNDBITE)(Greek) KALAVRITA COOPERATIVE GENERAL MANAGER KONSTANTINOS LATSIS SAYING: "In the United States, we are currently in preliminary talks, on an agreement, I wo
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: EU FETA CHEESE GREECE TARIFFS USA
  • Location: ATHENS AND KALAVRITA, GREECE
  • City: ATHENS AND KALAVRITA, GREECE
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Europe,Budget/Taxation/Revenue,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001357302042025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A small cooperative of 1,200 stock breeders producing feta, Greece's trademark white soft cheese, in the southern Peloponnese peninsula had one big target this year: a market foray in the United States.
    Back in 2019, the country managed to get feta exempted from U.S. tariffs imposed on European goods.
    But President Donald Trump's move on Wednesday to slap a 10% tariff on most goods imported to the United States has cast a shadow on their plans. European Union, a close ally, was not spared, facing 20% reciprocal tariff rates.
    Inside the dairy's cold room piled with 6,000 barrels where feta in brine sits to ripe for at least two months, General Manager of the cooperative, Konstantinos Latsis, said tariffs add a cost to the product and it would remain to be seen what share would go to the final consumer.
    The cooperative, one of the many producers of the salty sheep cheese supplies the Greek market with some 5,000 tonnes of barrel and tin-aged feta annually from its plant in Kalavrita.
    Greece has been making feta, a protected EU trademark since 2022, for over 6,000 years.
    It produced some 140,000 tonnes of feta last year worth 800 million euros. Some 8% of the exports reached the United States - the volume doubled in four years.
    Christos Apostolopoulos, head of Greece's association of dairy industries said feta was excluded from tariffs in the past, but may not escape this time.
    Now, Greek dairies exporting feta to the fast-growing U.S. market anticipate that tariffs could at least halve those exports.
    Despite the new U.S. duties, the Kalavrita cooperative still bets on its expansion overseas.
    (Production: Stamos Prousalis, Angeliki Koutantou, Deborah Kyvrikosaios)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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