Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 20 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold), Tillamook County Creamery Association and United Dairymen of Arizona who have contracts to sell 8.483 million pounds (3,848 metric tons) of Cheddar, Gouda, and Monterey Jack cheese and 176,370 pounds (80 metric tons) of butter to customers in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the South Pacific. The product has been contracted for delivery in the period from March through September 2015.

Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives who have contracts to sell 17.736 million pounds of cheese and 19.015 million pounds of butter to nineteen countries on five continents. The amounts of and butter in these sales contracts represent the equivalent of 591.072 million 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. This, in turn, positively impacts U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

The amounts of cheese and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT will pay export assistance to the bidders only when export and delivery of the product is verified by the submission of the required documentation.

Cooperatives Working TogetherThe 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.
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3.9.2015