Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has received and accepted 12 requests within their Export Assistance Program from member cooperatives seeking assistance on several large contracts to export dairy products to customers across the globe.

Dairy Farmers of America, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold), Michigan Milk Producers, Upstate Niagara Cooperative, Inc., and Tillamook County Creamery Association currently have contracts to sell 2.090 million pounds of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese, 1.323 million pounds of butter, and 396,832 pounds of whole milk powder to customers in Asia, Central America, the Middle East and Oceania. The product has been contracted for delivery in the period from January through July 2016.

In 2015, the CWT Export Assistance Program was able to held member cooperatives with contracts to sell 57.1 million pounds of cheese, 25.8 million pounds of butter and 49.9 million pounds of whole milk powder to thirty-five countries on six continents. The total amount of product in these sales contracts represented an equivalent of 1.473 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.