CWT Assists with 3.2 Million Pounds of Cheese Export Sales
Source: Cooperatives Working Together
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 13 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America and Darigold to sell a total of 1,432 metric tons (3.157 million pounds) of Cheddar and Gouda cheese to customers in Asia, Central America, the Middle East and North Africa. The product will be delivered December 2011 through May 2012.
In 2011, CWT has assisted members in making export sales of Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Gouda cheese totaling 41,503 metric tons (91.5 million pounds) to 25 countries on four continents. That is the equivalent of 910 million pounds of milk, or the annual production of 43,500 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.
The Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) Export Assistance program is funded by voluntary contributions from dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers. The money raised by their investment is being used to strengthen and stabilize the dairy farmers’ milk prices and margins. For more information about CWT, visit www.cwt.coop.
