CWT-Assisted Sales in February Reach 17.9 Million Pounds of Dairy Exports; Products Added
March 8, 2019
The Cooperatives Working Together program assisted member cooperatives in securing 58 contracts with sales of 8.5 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 476,199 pounds of butter and 8.8 million pounds of whole milk powder. The product is going to customers in Asia, Central America, the Middle East, and South America and will be shipped during the months of February through August 2019.
CWT’s self-help mechanism will be extended to three additional product categories in March: Processed cheese and cream cheese will now be eligible for CWT Export Assistance, and anhydrous milkfat will be re-introduced. NMPF Executive Vice President Tom Balmer introduced the change at NMPF’s monthly board meeting, noting the additional channels will help boost dairy sales overseas, the fundamental mission of CWT.
“Stay on the lookout for that,” he said.
These transactions bring the 2019 total of the CWT-assisted product sales contracts to 20.278 million pounds of cheese, 1.184 million pounds of butter and 11.098 million pounds of whole milk powder. These contracts will move the equivalent of 294.8 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis overseas in 2019.
Assisting CWT member cooperatives to gain and maintain world market share through the Export Assistance program in the long-term expands the demand for U.S. dairy products and the milk that produces them. This, in turn, positively impacts all U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that affect 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.
All cooperatives and dairy farmers are encouraged to add their support to this important program. Membership forms are available at http://www.cwt.coop/membership.