Spring Sheep cheese on display at The Fancy Food Show in New York. Photo: Spring Sheep
New Zealand sheep milk company Spring Sheep is vying for a slice of the US cheese market.
Chief executive Nick Hammond is at the Fancy Food Show in New York pushing the company's products.
"We're selling three styles - we have a pecorino, which is a harder cheese; we've also got aristee, which is a medium cheese; and then our new New Zealand version of a havarti, which is a really soft, buttery cheese."
Hammond said the response to the grass-fed range in the US has been phenomenal.
"We feel the New Zealand brand resonates really well with consumers up here, the grass fed system has also put us at a really high pedestal, it's even considered higher than organic in terms of quality."
Buyers check out Spring Sheep's cheese on show at The Fancy Food Show in New York. Photo: Spring Sheep
Getting into the US market is a huge opportunity for the company because the market was developed and growing, he said.
"It's far bigger than people would realise, the USA imports around 25 to 30 million kilos of premium sheep cheese annually, that's a market that's very stable and and growing.
"It's also not being particularly well serviced by Europe, they have struggled to keep up with sheep milk volumes, so there's a really amazing opportunity for us to come in here and build a major growth platform."
Hammond said the first commercial volumes of New Zealand produced sheep milk cheese will go into US speciality stores later in the year.