Introduction.

Handcrafted cheese factories in Atlantico state have been, along their history, absorbed in informality; this has taken the sector to have productivity structural problems and, consequently, competitiveness has become unfeasible for the survival of the sector in the XXI century.

Objective.

To estimate the productivity and profitability status of informal cheese factories in Atlantico state with the purpose of generating programs for formalization aimed to improve their competitiveness.

Materials and methods.

Descriptive analysis, survey made by authors with a questionnaire validated by experts and applied to informal cheese factories of the dairy products in sub-regions in Atlantico state.

Results.

To estimate monthly production of costeño cheese in such cheese factories by sub-region, and determine its productivity and profitability, achieving to establish a price that allows the competitiveness of the product in the state.

Conclusion.

The three sub-regions present a productivity higher than the one found in literature, the south sub-region presents the greatest production of cheese in the state and the lowest production cost per kilogram, and the highest sale price and bigger profitability in the center-east subregion.