Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 4 requests for export assistance on contracts to sell 3.144 million pounds of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese to customers in Asia. The product has been contracted for delivery in the period from December 2015 through April 2016.
Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives who have contracts to sell 54.545 million pounds of cheese, 25.671 million pounds of butter and 35.080 million pounds of whole milk powder to thirty-five countries on six continents. The amounts of cheese, butter and whole milk powder in these sales contracts represent the equivalent of 1.337 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. This, in turn, positively impacts all U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.
The amounts of dairy products 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.