“Global milk supplies are tight. Exports are where it’s at,” said Gregg Doud, the incoming president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF). He addressed the membership for the first time in that role at the joint annual meeting of NMPF, the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, and the United Dairy Industry Association held last month.
He shared that in just the last 20 years, the United States has gone from half a trillion to $1.8 trillion in food trade, and Doud said, “I don’t know where the slope of this thing ends.”
He talked about the significant role China plays in global agricultural trade, noting that the Asian nation’s self-sufficiency in all food production is falling. “China is the biggest importer in the world for beef, pork, poultry, corn, soybeans, wheat, and dairy,” Doud stated. “They are the whole enchilada.”
The United States, China, and agriculture are often grouped together in export discussions, and that’s because, “We are by far the two largest traders of food in the world,” Doud shared.
He also focused on the world’s growing need for protein, and he talked about the limitations other countries face that will prevent them from expanding production.
“If you look out over next ten years, the supply of protein in the world comes nowhere near meeting the demand,” Doud said of global protein needs. “Who else is going to grow more? The only place on earth you can do this is right here in the U.S.”
He challenged the audience, “Let’s go. Let’s get it in gear. The opportunity is now.”
