Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 32 requests for export assistance from Bongards Creameries, Dairy Farmers of America, Foremost Farms USA, Land O’Lakes, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold) and Tillamook County Creamery Association to sell 3.344 million pounds (1,517 metric tons) of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese and 3.463 million pounds (1,571 metric tons) of butter to customers in Asia, Central America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The product will be delivered in November 2013 through April 2014.
Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 114.980 million pounds of cheese, 84.471 million pounds of butter, 44,092 pounds of anhydrous milk fat and 218,258 pounds of whole milk powder to 37 countries on six continents. These sales are the equivalent of 2.963 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.
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.
Source: Cooperatives Working Together (CWT)