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CWT Assists with 3.3 Million Pounds of Dairy Product Export Sales
ARLINGTON, VA – Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) member cooperatives accepted 11 offers of export assistance from CWT that helped them capture sales contracts for 2.6 million pounds (1,170 MT) of American-type cheese, 218,000 pounds (100 MT) of whole milk powder and 487,000 pounds (220 MT) of cream cheese. The product is going to customers in Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, Middle East-North Africa and Oceania, and will be delivered from February through June 2024.
CWT-assisted member cooperative year-to-date export sales total 19.1 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 7.1 million pounds of whole milk powder and 1.3 million pounds of cream cheese. The products are going to 15 countries in five regions. These sales are the equivalent of 238.4 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. Over the last 12 months, CWT assisted sales are the equivalent of 925.7 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.
Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program positively affects all U.S. dairy farmers and cooperatives by fostering the competitiveness of US dairy products in the global marketplace and helping member cooperatives gain and maintain world market share for U.S dairy products. As a result, the program has helped significantly expand the total demand for U.S. dairy products and the demand for U.S. farm milk that produces those products.
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.
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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 dairy farmers’ milk prices and margins.
NMPF’s Vitaliano Offers 2024 Dairy Economic Outlook
NMPF’s Vice President of Economic Policy Peter Vitaliano provides Dairy Radio Now listeners a look ahead at what farm-level milk prices will do in 2024. Farmers should benefit from lower feed costs, and with milk production expected to remain stagnant again this year, prices should gradually improve.
CWT Assists with 895,000 Pounds of Dairy Product Export Sales
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FMMO’s Next Steps Begin
Its Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) hearing now concluded, USDA is now considering more than 12,000 pages of testimony as it formulates its plan for FMMO modernization. NMPF is still doing what it can to ensure that proposal best reflects the interest of dairy farmers and their cooperatives, two NMPF economists said in a Dairy Defined podcast.
The key to successful modernization is a comprehensive approach that addresses the complexity of federal orders in a way that respects the entire dairy industry while keeping in mind that orders most fundamentally must work for farmers, Dr. Peter Vitaliano, Vice President for Economic Policy and Market Research, and Stephen Cain, Senior Director for Economic Research and Analysis at NMPF. That’s always been the bedrock principle behind NMPF proposals on areas ranging from returning to the “higher-of” Class I mover to updating milk composition factors.
“What separates National Milk’s proposals from processor groups is more of our holistic approach,” Cain said. “You can’t look at the federal order system having not been updated in 20 years and not address all facets of the industry, right? You can’t say in good faith that Class I differentials need to be updated because costs have gone up without also conceding the fact that make allowances need to go up for the same reason. So we took that holistic approach. That is going to help move the industry forward together.”
Cain and Vitaliano also discuss USDA’s decision-making timeline, and why July could be the key moment for FMMO modernization. The full podcast is here. You can also find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Broadcast outlets may use the MP3 file below. Please attribute information to NMPF.
NICMA Elects New Officers, Concludes Successful 79th Annual Meeting
The National Ice Cream Mix Association (NICMA), a dairy industry trade organization managed by NMPF and led by its chief science officer, Dr. Jamie Jonker, held its 79th Annual Meeting Jan. 14-17 in Fort Lauderdale.
More than 60 attendees, speakers, and guests enjoyed three days of technical sessions covering topics from food safety, product trends and innovation, employee retention, socially responsible sourcing, regulatory issues, and industry economics. NICMA welcomed Boxes of St. Louis, Inc., and General Films as new Associate Members.
NMPF Accepting Applications for 2024 Scholarship Program
NMPF is now accepting applications for its National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program for the academic year 2024-2025.
NMPF awards scholarships annually to outstanding students enrolled in master’s or doctoral programs actively pursuing dairy-related fields of research of immediate interest to NMPF member cooperatives and the U.S. dairy industry at large.
Graduate students pursuing research that directly benefits milk marketing cooperatives and dairy producers are encouraged to apply. Applicants do not need to be members of NMPF to qualify. Scholarship recipients will be invited to present their research via webinar during the summer of 2024. Top applicants are eligible to be awarded the Hintz Memorial Scholarship, created in 2005 in honor of the late Cass-Clay Creamery Board Chairman Murray Hintz, who was instrumental in establishing NMPF’s scholarship program.
Recommended fields of study include but are not limited to Agriculture Communications and Journalism, Animal Health, Animal and/or Human Nutrition, Bovine Genetics, Dairy Products Processing, Dairy Science, Economics, Environmental Science, Food Science, Food Safety, Herd Management, and Marketing and Price Analysis.
Applications must be received no later than Friday, April 12, 2024. For an application or more information, please visit the NMPF website or email scholarship@nmpf.org.
Scholarships are funded through the National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Fund. If you would like to support the scholarship fund, please consider a donation here: https://donate.stripe.com/eVa7th6v18VcaT6144
NMPF Comments on FDA Veterinary Priorities and Antimicrobial Use Duration
NMPF submitted comments Jan. 19 to the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine on their Environmental Scan.
The scan’s purpose is to identify major trends, including emerging issues and ongoing challenges, in the veterinary center’s internal and external environments to support, inform, and improve short-term and long-term strategic planning. The center asked six wide ranging questions about priorities, legal authority, communications, and One Health, an effort to improve health outcomes among all species.
NMPF’s comments reviewed the nearly 40-year U.S. dairy industry commitment to One Health through residue avoidance and the FARM animal care program. Comments to specific questions included support for broader FDA authority through the FEED Act to regulate feed additives with non-nutritive benefits, including environmental benefit claims, production claims, and claims about effects on the animal well-being and pre-harvest food safety. The comments also supported FDA’s efforts to streamline development and approval of other novel technologies to address animal health, antimicrobial use, and environmental issues.
The veterinary medicine comments followed joint comments NMPF submitted Jan. 5 with the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), the Academy of Veterinary Consultants (AVC), and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) on the draft FDA Guidance for Industry (GFI) #273 Defining Durations of Use for Approved Medically Important Antimicrobial Drugs Fed to Food-Producing Animals. In reviewing GFI #273, the groups identified several substantive concerns.
The group also referenced the agency back to extensive evidence-based comments previously submitted to earlier requests by the agency for public comments on this topic — specifically, the joint comments from AABP, AVC, NMPF and NCBA in 2017 and 2021, to include a request for information document with more than 80 scientific references.
US-EU Trade Discussion Features NMPF’s Morris Representing Dairy
Shawna Morris, Executive Vice President for Trade Policy and Global Affairs, attended U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) events on Jan. 30-31 representing U.S. dairy in discussions via the Transatlantic Initiative on Sustainable Trade (TIST) work program.
The European Commission launched the initiative last May to boost bilateral engagement with the United States and accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral economy. Morris participated in a high-level plenary session, a smaller breakout session, and a Jan. 30 welcome reception. While there she focused on the need to ensure EU agricultural policymaking is not wielded as a barrier to trade, encouraging the European Union to focus on collaboration on shared objectives rather than prescriptive dictates that would deepen U.S.-EU agricultural trade tensions.
NMPF Advocates for Common Names Protections in USTR Comments
NMPF, in partnership with the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), submitted comments to the U.S. Trade Representative Jan. 24 that emphasized the U.S. government’s need. to secure commitments from trading partners to assure the future use of certain generic cheese terms. The comments, part of NMPF’s ongoing mission to protect the rights of U.S. cheesemakers to use common names like “parmesan” and “feta” worldwide, were submitted in response to the agency’s request for input on its annual Special 301 review of intellectual property trade issues.
NMPF and USDEC’s submission supported more comprehensive comments from the Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN), which NMPF’s trade policy team staffs. CCFN reiterated how producers on-the-ground are negatively affected when the European Union confiscates common names, and detailed the specific markets that the administration should prioritize work in to preserve export opportunities.
Ag Trade Caucus Launches as NMPF Pushes Export Opportunities
NMPF Trade Policy Director Tony Rice joined Farmers for Free Trade for Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 meetings with key lawmakers and staff to promote a more proactive U.S. trade agenda. The meetings coincided with the Jan. 31 launch of the new Congressional Ag Trade Caucus, inspired by the farmer group to elevate the importance of trade policy that levels the global playing field for America’s dairy and ag producers.
Rice spoke with congressional staff about the need for new market access for American dairy exports, relaying the industry’s concern that U.S. exporters are seeing growing disadvantages versus America’s competitors. The discussions also offered the opportunity for NMPF and Farmers for Free Trade to educate newer congressional staffers from agricultural districts about the value of exports to their districts and constituents.
FARM Animal Care Kicks Off Version 5 Training
In preparation for new standards that go into effect July 1, the National Dairy FARM Program hosted the 2024 FARM Animal Care Version 5 trainer course Denver, CO from Jan. 9-11.
Nineteen trainers reviewed Version 5 revisions, discussed evaluation best practices, and calibrated animal observation scoring on a nearby farm. The trainers will manage training sessions to FARM’s 400 Animal Care evaluators throughout 2024. The first of those sessions for evaluators are Feb. 13-15 in Minneapolis, MN. That meeting will have training content for both seasoned and first-time FARM Animal Care evaluators.
Visit the FARM Program website to learn more about the FARM Animal Care Program evaluator expectations. Check back throughout Q1, as FARM will continue to release more Version 5 specific materials including an evaluation prep guide and reference manual.
The FARM Program’s aim is to continue to proactively communicate updates and prepare cooperatives, processors, and farmers during the first half of 2024, before new FARM Animal Care Version 5 standards are implemented.
