While world dairy markets remained highly competitive in 2015, the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) export assistance program helped its members capture contracts to sell American-type cheeses, butter and whole milk powder in key overseas markets.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, 86 offers of assistance were accepted out of the 186 requests that members submitted. This generated sales contracts for 18.1 million pounds of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese, 176370 pounds of butter and 16.5 million pounds of whole milk powder – a total of 35 million pounds of dairy products from October through December.
When combined with the sales contracts made in the first nine months of 2015, the product sold because of CWT throughout 2015 totaled 57.1 million pounds of cheese, 25.9 million pounds of butter and 49.9 million pounds of whole milk powder.
That is the milkfat equivalent of nearly 1.473 billion pounds of milk. Seventy-two percent of the contracted products were scheduled to ship in 2015, with the remainder scheduled in 2016.
Asian customers continued to be the primary destination for 2015 CWT-assisted cheese sales, receiving 70 percent of those exports, with the Middle East next at 12 percent. Japan accounts for 85 percent of the cheese sales to Asia.
For butter sales contracts in 2015, 71 percent of assisted products went to the Middle East, with 15 percent going to North Africa. Saudi Arabia is receiving the majority, 82 percent, of the Middle East butter.
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) provided the content on this page. CWT was designed by America’s dairy farmers to benefit all U.S. dairy farmers. It is a voluntary, producer-funded program developed by National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) to strengthen and stabilize producer prices.
Participating producers contribute four cents per hundredweight of milk produced to fund the program. For membership information go to Cooperative Working Together.
