Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 20 requests for export assistance from Bongards Creameries, Darigold, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative, Michigan Milk Producers Association, United Dairymen of Arizona and Upstate Niagara/O-AT-KA to sell 1.864 million pounds (846 metric tons) of Cheddar, Gouda and Swiss cheese and 3.657 million pounds (1,659 metric tons) of butter to customers in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Central and South America. The product will be delivered January through June 2013.
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The 2013 CWT-assisted sales will be going to 14 countries on four continents and are the equivalent of 164.4 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. That is the annual production of 7,800 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.

01.15.2013