Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 12 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Darigold and United Dairymen of Arizona to sell a total of 3,336 metric tons (7.355 million pounds) of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese to customers in Asia, the Middle East and Central America. The product will be delivered December through April 2012.
In 2011, CWT has assisted members in making export sales of Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Gouda cheese totaling 40,071 metric tons (88.3 million pounds) to 25 countries on four continents. That is the equivalent of 880 million pounds of milk, the annual production of 41,900 cows.
The CWT Export Assistance program will continue into 2012 and 2013, having achieved participation equal to 70.1 percent of milk marketings. In total, 33 cooperatives and 177 independent producers will be investing two cents per hundredweight that will fund the program’s export efforts over the next two years.
Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program positively impacts producer milk prices in the short-term by reducing inventories that overhang the market and depress cheese prices. 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.
Source: Cooperatives Working Together (CWT)