The information below has been supplied by dairy marketers and other industry organizations. It has not been edited, verified or endorsed by Hoard’s Dairyman.

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 12 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Foremost Farms, Land O’Lakes, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold), and United Dairymen of Arizona. These cooperatives have contracts to sell 881,849 pounds (400 metric tons) of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese, and 2.547 million pounds (1,156 metric tons) of butter to customers in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The product has been contracted for delivery in the period from May through October 2018.

CWT-assisted member cooperative 2018 export sales total 32.730 million pounds of American-type cheeses, and 9.556 million pounds of butter (82% milkfat) to 25 countries on five continents. These sales are the equivalent of 517.179 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 affects all U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

The amounts of dairy products and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT will pay export assistance to the bidders only when export and 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.