Producer
Ornua Co-operative
Ireland's largest dairy exporter; markets Kerrygold butter brand, the #2 branded butter in the US with $1B+ in US retail sales (2025). Exports to 110+ countries.
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Kerrygold Branded Butter + Cheese
55%Bulk Butter + Industrial Dairy
25%Specialty Dairy Ingredients
20%
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Did you know2019
Kerrygold butter was illegal to sell in Wisconsin from 1973 to 2019 — banned under a state law that required all butter sold in Wisconsin to be manufactured by Wisconsin-licensed dairy operations. Wisconsin Statute 97.175 had been designed to protect Wisconsin dairy interests and was applied to out-of-state US butter, but also technically covered imports. While Ireland was exporting Kerrygold to Germany, the UK, and eventually all 49 other US states, the most dairy-intensive US state was the only one where it was prohibited. Wisconsin consumers who wanted Kerrygold crossed the border to Illinois to buy it. The law was finally changed in 2019 after industry lobbying and attention to the trade law absurdity. The same state dairy protectionism that had blocked Wisconsin milk from California for decades also blocked the world's most successful imported butter brand for 46 years. A state marketing cartel for dairy outlasted NAFTA and the WTO by decades.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ↗Concentration2026
Ornua's Kerrygold crossed $1 billion in US retail sales in 2025, making Irish butter the #2 branded butter in the US — up from near-zero US presence a decade ago. US imports of Irish butter grew 644% from 2014 to 2021, with a record 17 million pounds imported in a single month (November 2024).
Dairy Reporter ↗Origin2023
Ornua (then the Irish Dairy Board) created the Kerrygold brand in 1962 specifically for butter export — the Irish government had established the Dairy Board in 1961 to collectively market Irish dairy internationally because individual Irish cooperatives were too small to export competitively. The name "Kerrygold" combined the county of Kerry (famous Irish pastoral landscape) with gold to evoke premium dairy. Germany was the first export success in the 1960s; today Kerrygold is a leading butter brand in Germany, the US, the UK, and many other markets. The US breakthrough happened slowly: Kerrygold entered the US in the 1970s as a specialty butter but remained niche for decades. The grass-fed food movement of the 2010s — driven by Whole Foods, farmers market culture, and keto/paleo dietary trends — suddenly made Kerrygold's Irish grass-fed positioning mainstream. By 2025, Kerrygold had $1B+ in US retail sales, making it the largest-selling imported butter brand in US history and the #2 branded butter overall — achieved with minimal advertising spend, purely through word of mouth from food culture.
Ornua Co-operative ↗