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) member cooperatives accepted five offers of export assistance from CWT that helped them capture sales contracts for 965,625 pounds (438 metric tons) of Cheddar cheese, 180,779 pounds (82 metric tons) of cream cheese. The product is going to customers in Asia and the Middle East. It will be delivered during the period from November 2019 through March 2020.

These contracts bring the year-to-date totals to 44.4 million pounds of American-type and Swiss cheeses, 277,782 pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 4.5 million pounds of butter (82% milkfat), 5.3 million pounds of cream cheese and 43.5 million pounds of whole milk powder. The products are going to 27 countries in six regions and are the equivalent of 878.3 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.

Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program positively affects all U.S. dairy farmers and dairy cooperatives by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact the milk price. It does this by helping member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share for U.S dairy products. As a result, the program has significantly expanded total demand for U.S. dairy products and U.S. farm milk.

The amounts of dairy products and related milk volumes reflect current contracts for delivery, not completed export volumes. CWT pays export assistance to the bidders only when export and delivery of the product is verified by required documentation.

All dairy farmers and dairy cooperatives should invest in CWT. Membership information is available on the CWT website, www.cwt.coop.

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 http://www.cwt.coop/