Thanks for all the info. A point on terminology. I'm never quite sure what Americans, and it seems Canadians, mean when they say a cheese is "sharp". It's not a term used in Britain and in its ordinary (British) meaning isn't a word I'd use to describe a good cheddar. "Strong", "fruity", "nutty", "smooth" are words we would use. "Sharp" in its normal British meaning would describe a cheddar that was salty & harsh, not at all a good cheese.

I suspect the problem may lie in the way the cheese gets here.
Dutch Edam is easily available in Belize (at least on the mainland). however it tastes NOTHING like edam as purchased in UK. The packaging looks to me to be the same, and we are talking whole cheeses here ready wrapped, but the consistency of the cheese itself is different. The waxy feel typical of Edam is gone
i suspect the cheese gets frozen somewhere along the line. If you bring cheese out from the UK it sweats and the flavour is gone, so they must at least cool it. My guess is they freeze it.
I agree with Peter's remarks about Canadian cheddar ( and indeed with retrospect his comments about EC).
But then even Parmesan (not the muck in a plastic jar) is not the same. As an exiled Brit. decent cheese is my number 2 regretted food loss on leaving England. We used to buy Parmesan cut from whole round cheeses piled in the gutter in Ventemiglia when I was a kid.EC rules probably don't allow that anymore, but it WAS real Parmesan.
Still there are plenty of compensations here so I'm absolutely not regretting our move here 5 years ago.