Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 36 requests for export assistance from Bongards Creameries, Dairy Farmers of America, Foremost Farms USA, Maryland Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold), Tillamook County Creamery Association and Upstate Niagara Cooperative (O-AT-KA) to sell 9.760 million pounds (4,427 metric tons) of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese and 3.003 million pounds (1,362 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 May 2014.
Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 121.778 million pounds of cheese, 87.918 million pounds of butter, 44,092 pounds of anhydrous milk fat and 218,258 pounds of whole milk powder to 38 countries on six continents. These sales are the equivalent of 3.106 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)