Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) member cooperatives accepted nine offers of export assistance from CWT that helped them capture contracts to sell 709,889 pounds (322 metric tons) of Cheddar cheese and 132,277 pounds (60 metric tons) of whole milk powder. The product has been contracted for delivery in Asia and the Middle East for the period from October 2018 through January 2019.
CWT-assisted member cooperative 2018 export sales total 48.270 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 12.962 million pounds of butter (82% milkfat) and 52.188 million pounds of whole milk powder to 36 countries on five continents. These sales are the equivalent of 1.118 billion 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.
