Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 7 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold) and Tillamook County Creamery Association to sell 540,133 pounds (245 metric tons) of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese to customers in Asia and the Middle East. The product will be delivered December 2014 through June 2015.
Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 99.690 million pounds of cheese, 53.591 million pounds of butter and 56.729 million pounds of whole milk powder to 45 countries on six continents. These sales are the equivalent of 2.540 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.
Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program, in the long-term, helps member cooperatives gain and maintain market share, thus expanding the demand for U.S. dairy products and the U.S. farm milk that produces them in the rapidly growing world dairy markets. This, in turn, positively impacts U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.
CWT will pay export assistance to the bidders only when delivery of the product is verified by the submission of the required documentation.
The Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) Export Assistance program is funded by voluntary contributions from dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers. The money raised by their investment is being used to strengthen and stabilize the dairy farmers' milk prices and margins. For more information about CWT, visit www.cwt.coop. 12.9.2014