Producers estimate that global sales of counterfeit cheese amount to around $1.73 billion (€1.6 billion) annually.
In the United States alone, the production of imitation Italian cheeses reached an astonishing 5.7 billion pounds (2.6 billion kilos) in 2021, according to Coldiretti.
Oh, for Chrissake. It's not a counterfeit. "Parmesan and Reggiano" is a genericized identifier in the US. Everyone in the US knows that they're buying a variety of cheese, not a cheese from Italy. If you want something from Italy, you look on the label for a "product of Italy".
Saying that this is a counterfeit is roughly equivalent to me saying that the EU produces counterfeit Wendy's food because Wendy's-the-hamburger-company doesn't own the Wendy's trademark in the EU. Nobody in the Netherlands going to Wendy's is expecting that they're getting something from Wendy's-the-hamburger-chain.