CWT Assists with 2.6 Million Pounds of Cheese and Butter Export Sales

Source: Cooperatives Working Together

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 13 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold), Upstate-Niagara/O-AT-KA, and Tillamook County Creamery Association to sell 815,270 pounds (370 metric tons) of Cheddar cheese and 1.797 million pounds (815 metric tons) of 82% butter to customers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Central America. The product will be delivered in January through July 2015.

These CWT-assisted sales by these member cooperatives are going to thirteen countries on four continents. The sales are the equivalent of 338.491 million 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 U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

CWT will pay export assistance 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.