AHDB UK Wholesale Update, December 2025
Mild Cheddar averaged £2,830 per tonne, down £130 month on month.
Milk supply is high. Stocks are building. Demand is weak.
So the cheese is cheaper.
That matters.
£2,830 a ton.
That’s under three pounds a kilo.
At Tesco, cheddar comes in many brands.
Those brands sell between nine pounds and eighteen pounds a kilo.
Different wrappers.
Same cheese.
Nothing got harder to make.
Milk is plentiful.
Storage is full.
So the difference isn’t cost.
It’s behavior.
Prices are set by what people will tolerate.
We don’t raise our voice.
We don’t interrupt.
We don’t argue with the number on the shelf.
We queue.
We wait.
We assume the price must be right.
In other countries, these rules exist too.
But only for children.
Retailers notice.
They learn they don’t have to lower prices when costs fall.
They learn we’ll keep paying anyway.
That’s why the price stays high.
Calling this a cost of living crisis makes it sound accidental.
Like weather.
Like bad luck.
But the input fell.
Only the margin didn’t.
What we’re paying for isn’t cheese.
It’s the confidence that we won’t push back.
The milk is cheap.
The silence costs more.
If the wholesale price drops again
and the shelf doesn’t change,
then nothing is broken.
The machine runs.