CWT Assists with 11.1 Million Pounds of Export Sales

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 28 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Foremost Farms USA, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, Michigan Milk Producers Association, United Dairymen of Arizona and Upstate Niagara Cooperative (O-AT-KA) to sell 7.108 million pounds (3,224 metric tons) of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese, 3.942 million pounds (1,788 metric tons) of butter and 44,092 pounds (20 metric tons) of anhydrous milk fat (AMF) to customers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and North America. The product will be delivered April through September 2013.

Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 41.156 million pounds of cheese, 44.849 million pounds of butter, 44,092 pounds of AMF and 218,258 pounds of whole milk powder to 28 countries on six continents. These sales are the equivalent of 1.359 billion pounds of milk on a milkfat basis, or the annual milk output of 64,700 cows.

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 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.