CWT Assists with 2 Million Pounds of Cheese and Butter Export Sales



Cooperatives Working Together Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted eight requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold), Michigan Milk Producers Association, Swiss Valley Farms and Upstate Niagara Cooperative (O-AT-KA) to sell 925,942 pounds (420 metric tons) of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese and 1.102 million pounds (500 metric tons) of butter to customers in Asia and North Africa. The product will be delivered May through October 2013.

Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 50.982 million pounds of cheese, 51.727 million pounds of butter, 44,092 pounds of anhydrous milk fat and 218,258 pounds of whole milk powder to 31 countries on six continents. These sales are the equivalent of 1.599 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. That is more than 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 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.

Return to Industry Buzz.


4.29.2013