Cooperatives Working Together Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted two requests for export assistance to sell 50,706 pounds (23 metric tons) of Cheddar cheese and 661,387 pounds (300 metric tons) of butter to customers in Asia and the Middle East. The product will be delivered June through October 2013.

Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 47.106 million pounds of cheese, 47.145 million pounds of butter, 44,092 pounds of anhydrous milk fat and 218,258 pounds of whole milk powder to 30 countries on six continents. These sales are the equivalent of 1.464 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. That is equal to 90% of USDA's projected increase in milk marketings for all of 2013.

Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program positively impacts producer milk prices in the short-term by helping to maintain inventories of cheese and butter at desirable levels. In the long-term, CWT's Export Assistance program helps member cooperatives gain and maintain market share, thus expanding the demand for U.S. dairy products and the farm milk that produces them.

CWT will pay export bonuses 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.

4.10.2013