“At a time when most of the news about the dairy economy is bad, it’s heartening to see that we have finally prevailed in a decade‐long battle to ensure a level playing field between U.S.‐made dairy products, and imports,” said Jerry Kozak, President and & CEO of NMPF. “All that America’s dairy farmers have ever asked is that dairy importers, who benefit from the world’s largest dairy market, pay their fair share to help expand that market, the same way that our farmers do.”

NMPF first worked with Congress to include a provision in the 2002 Farm Bill to expand the promotion checkoff to imports, but the expansion was blocked due to objections that the domestic checkoff was not applied to farmers in all 50 states, only the continental 48. So, NMPF again worked with Congress as it wrote last year’s Farm Bill to ensure that the checkoff was applied in every state, removing the potential stumbling block importers had raised about the equal treatment of all domestic and imported milk production.

Kozak noted that imports of dairy products have grown in the past two decades, at a rate even faster than domestic production. In the past 10 years alone, the value of dairy imports sold in the U.S. has expanded from $800 million, to nearly $3 billion. He also noted that ten other farm commodities have promotion programs that apply their checkoff to imports, saying that “dairy has been a glaring exception to a common practice.”

“While dairy imports enjoy a larger share of the U.S. market compared to where things stood back in 1984, importers haven’t paid a single penny to help promote the market, the way America’s dairy farmers have. It’s time that inconsistency ends,” Kozak said. “Everyone who benefits from this market should pay part of the tab.”