Cheddar cheese

~$1.50–$1.56/lb · as of 2026-07-11 Hold

Cheddar cheese trades on a wholesale reference price that moves week to week; right now it's reading down across public sources (as of 2026-07-11). To see the live number, the typical range, and where your own price sits, open the reading below — then check your last invoice against it.

Market readconfidence medium · as of 2026-07-11

About $1.50–$1.56/lb (wholesale reference, single USDA market), as of 2026-07-11.

Trend: down -5.6% over the recent window.

HoldInside its usual range — nothing to do.

Recent range $1.62–$1.66, right now $1.53 — near the bottom of its recent range. Lower than every one of its last 12 reads. (over the tracked window)

Typical for July

Usually $1.59–$2.11 (median $1.93) in July, across 18 reads over 4 distinct years. The current read ($1.53) is below its typical July — seasonally cheap.

Seasonal window: usually cheapest in May, priciest in September. 12/12 months with ≥2 yrs

How “typical” is figured

Multi-year seasonal norm, computed from the deep public history (USDA, BLS, FRED). A month earns a “typical” figure only once observed across 2 or more distinct years; below that bar, none is shown.

Indexed to 100 on 2026-04-18 · ~94 on 2026-07-11 — eased over the tracked window. Relative movement, no price.

Sources · 3

USDA LMR · BLS · FRED — public data, as of 2026-07-11. Wholesale reference (roughly what distributors pay), not the delivered price you pay.

Verified: our 80% range caught the next weekly print about 77% of the time (72–81%, 734 reads) · current for its source’s cadence.

How we verify this number

Download this series: CSV · JSON

See cheddar cheese live in the Cost Index

What is the cheapest month to buy cheddar cheese?

The cheapest month for cheddar cheese is usually May, and the priciest is September — a moderate seasonal swing: about 10% cheaper at its May low than at its September peak, across the multi-year public history (USDA, BLS, FRED). That is calendar co-occurrence, not a forecast; read it against your own invoice.

Why it matters

Cheddar cheese trades per lb as a wholesale reference. That is the market's figure, not the delivered price at your door — your invoice adds freight, the vendor's margin, and your volume. Always compare in the same unit.

The price moves with forces upstream of your kitchen — chiefly corn (feed), soybeans (feed), and diesel. That is an association, not a direct cause, but when those climb, cheddar cheese tends to follow. So a higher invoice is not always the vendor's doing: sometimes the whole market moved.

Notable price events

Across the ~14.2 years of public data we track, the wholesale reference for cheddar cheese moved farthest from its normal range on these dates. Each figure is the peak versus its own ~1-year local median — a market move, not a vendor markup.

What this means for your kitchen

Cheddar cheese: a genuinely swingy line. Leave a cushion in the menu price, and check the reading before you commit a promo or a prix-fixe. Its big moves have typically held ~9 weeks before easing — plan for that, not for a bounce next week.

And the read that matters most: when a spike here lines up with a documented market event (below), a high invoice is the market — hold your price or re-engineer the plate, don't burn the vendor relationship. When the reference is calm but your price isn't, that's the conversation worth having.

Nov 2020 ▲ 48% above normal

$2.73/lb vs ~$1.84 typical · held about 9 weeks · in the usual high season for cheddar cheese
Aug 2020 ▲ 40% above normal

$2.71/lb vs ~$1.94 typical · held about 10 weeks

Documented around this time COVID-19 US dairy supply-chain disruption (2020)

What happened · sources
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 abruptly closed a large share of US foodservice demand (restaurants, schools, hospitality), and USDA documented on-farm milk disposal during the first quarter of 2020 (dumped milk was made eligible for CFAP payments). Beginning May 15, 2020, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service launched the Farmers to Families Food Box program, which required milk and cheese in dairy boxes; USDA reported the first round contracted roughly $1.2 billion of food products including about $317 million of dairy over a short window, concentrating cheese and dairy demand. The program ultimately distributed more than 173 million boxes worth over $5 billion before ending in 2021.
Choices Magazine (Agricultural & Applied Economics Association) · US Department of Agriculture (Food and Nutrition Service) · USDA Agricultural Marketing Service
May 2020 ▼ 29% below normal

$1.39/lb vs ~$1.95 typical · held about 7 weeks · moved with butter
Jul 2023 ▼ 20% below normal

$1.45/lb vs ~$1.82 typical · held about 10 weeks
Nov 2012 ▲ 20% above normal

$2.06/lb vs ~$1.71 typical · held about 8 weeks · in the usual high season for cheddar cheese · moved with butter

Price moves are detected from public history (USDA/BLS/FRED). Documented events come from our open, cited registry — shown as co-occurring context, never asserted as the cause. How events are picked.

How to use this reading

Open the reading above and note the typical range and the date.
Pull your last cheddar cheese invoice, in the same unit.
Below the range is a good deal; inside is normal; well above is a vendor conversation.
Watch the direction over a few weeks before re-pricing a dish — one week is noise.

Costing a dish that uses cheddar cheese? Use the Plate Cost Calculator.

Frequently asked

What does cheddar cheese cost wholesale right now?

It moves week to week. The market read above shows the current typical range and the date behind it; read it against your own invoice.

What is the best time of year to buy cheddar cheese?

The cheapest stretch for cheddar cheese is usually around May, and the priciest around September, based on its multi-year public price history. That is a calendar pattern, not a forecast; read it against your invoice.

Why did my cheddar cheese price jump?

It can be the whole market or a single vendor. The range tells you which: if your price lands inside the range, the market moved; well above the range is a vendor conversation. It tends to move with corn (feed), soybeans (feed), diesel — association, not direct cause.

What unit is cheddar cheese priced in?

It trades per lb as a wholesale reference — not the delivered price you pay, so compare against your invoice in the same unit.

Am I overpaying for cheddar cheese?

Place your own price on the typical range above. Below the range is a good deal; inside is normal; above the range is worth a vendor conversation.

More dairy & eggsButter (AA, bulk) · Eggs

Open the live tool Browse all readings

This is the market reference. To see whether your invoices track it, line by line, that's Muntin Ledger — your data, no language model.

Sourced: USDA Livestock, Poultry & Grain Market News · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — public data, via the live tool · what a cost index is