CWT Assists with 14.8 Million Pounds of Cheese and Butter Sales in November
December 5, 2013
Even though the program only received requests for export assistance for a few weeks in November due to the NMPF Joint Annual Meeting and the Thanksgiving holiday, Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) provided assistance on 47 sales of cheese and butter totaling 14.8 million pounds. The accepted requests included 3 million pounds of butter (1,362 metric tons) and 11.8 million pounds of cheddar, Gouda, and Monterey Jack cheeses. The product will go to 16 different countries and will be delivered between November 2013 and May 2014.
Through November, CWT-assisted exports of butter totaled 87.9 million pounds (39,879 metric tons) and 121.9 million pounds of cheddar, Gouda, and Monterey Jack cheeses. The product is going to 40 different countries on six continents. With the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) expired as of September 30, 2013, and the farm bill in limbo, CWT is the only program actively providing support to America’s dairy farmers.
In membership news, Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), headquartered in Tillamook, Oregon, joined the 37 other cooperatives in supporting CWT’s export assistance effort.
TCCA has approximately 100 member-owners and manufactures a variety of cheeses and other branded dairy products, including: Cheddar, Cheddar Cheese Curds, Monterey Jack, Reduce Fat Monterey Jack, Hot Habanero Jack, Colby, Colby Jack, and Pepper Jack. Other cheese varieties include Swiss, Smoked Swiss and Baby Swiss; Muenster and Provolone. They also manufacture a line of premium ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, butter, whey, and WPC 34 from the two plants that they operate – one in Tillamook and the second in Boardman, Oregon.
The CWT Committee representative from TCCA will be Mark Wustenberg, vice president of quality and operations.