News for Dairy Co-Ops

While national headlines are dominated with news of delayed imports threatening to put a damper on the upcoming holidays as a result of supply chain disruptions, U.S. dairy exporters are facing an increasing, and in some ways opposite, difficulty: Securing containers and cargo ship space for their products.

That issue is gaining broader attention as well, thanks in large part to the efforts of the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and NMPF, which along with other ag organizations and companies are leading the policy push for supply chain improvements.

That work commanded a larger spotlight recently as Congress convened to examine the supply chain impacts on American agriculture and related sectors. The current supply chain crisis could cause “irreparable harm” to agriculture, Mike Durkin, President and CEO of Leprino Foods, said at a U.S. House Agriculture Committee hearing Nov. 3 about how supply chain issues are affecting export markets for Leprino and the U.S. dairy industry. USDEC and NMPF voiced strong support for Durkin’s call for U.S. government action to more effectively tackle the shipping crisis and its effects on dairy farmers and manufacturers.

“The supply chain challenges have significantly impacted our business, and we don’t expect them to ease anytime soon. I’m here to talk about a critical component of this disruption that has not received much attention – exports,” Durkin said. “This export crisis may well result in irreparable harm to American agriculture as customers around the world are questioning the U.S. dairy industry’s reliability as a supplier.”

Durkin called on Congress to act on ocean shipping legislation, address critical transport-industry labor shortages, increase port hours of operation, and take other steps to help American agriculture producers reach their foreign markets effectively.

Even as cargos coming from Asia are at full capacity, 72% of containers leaving major California ports are leaving empty – a record volume. While supply and demand issues are a large part of the problem, foreign-owned carrier lines have taken advantage of the situation to forgo loading U.S. exports in favor of loading empties for a quick turnaround toward more lucrative Asian imports. As a result, continually rolled bookings, unprecedented shipping rates, product deterioration, and high detention and demurrage fees have cost American dairy exporters nearly $1 billion through just the first seven months of the year. As a result, even as international demand for dairy products reaches records, U.S. shippers are losing market share to competitors as the United States risks its reputation as a reliable supplier.

NMPF, USDEC and policy partners continue to drive home with the administration and Congress the long-term implications this crisis will have on dairy exporters unless measures are taken to reign in unwarranted carrier behavior. That work has helped to build bipartisan support in Congress for the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (H.R. 4996), which now has 65 cosponsors. A briefing paper on the legislation is here; a new “frequently-asked questions” document compiled by NMPF can be found here. In October, NMPF and USDEC urged the Department of Transportation to voice support for the legislation and provided detailed recommendations on several other concrete steps that DOT and its interagency partners could take to help address the shipping crisis.

The past month has seen a spate of steps announced to begin to help address the supply chain problems. The announced follow a series of meetings NMPF, USDEC were the sole dairy organizations that a long with  a few other agricultural leaders held with officials in September, including with White House Ports Envoy John Porcari and other White House supply chain task force staff, to help drive home the depth and complexity of the shipping-related challenges facing dairy exporters.:

• As a partial response to NMPF sharing specific data on the impact of the issue and direct advocacy, USDA announced Sept. 29 that the agency will provide $500 million “to provide relief from agricultural market disruption, such as increased transportation challenges, availability and cost of certain materials, and other near-term obstacles related to the marketing and distribution of certain commodities.” NMPF will be sharing member feedback on how the funds could be best used to mitigate the congestion in a meeting with USDA officials next week.
• On Oct. 13, following months of intensive advocacy to the administration from NMPF, President Biden announced a series of public and private commitments from ports, dockworkers and large companies aimed at addressing port bottlenecks that have been snarling supply chains for nearly a year. The commitments included
  • An expansion to 24/7 operations at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
  • An International Longshore and Warehouse Union announcement that its members are willing to work the necessary extra shifts, and
  • A pledge from six large companies – Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Samsung, Home Depot and Target – to use the expanded hours to move more cargo off the docks so ships can come to shore faster.
• On Oct. 20, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that directs state agencies to identify state, federal and private land for short-term container storage; extend a temporary exemption to current gross vehicle limits to priority freight routes; and establish workforce training and education programs.

NMPF encourages the dairy farming community to reach out to elected officials to voice support for the proposed House legislation and highlight the importance of action to deal with the shipping crisis impacting dairy exports.

NMPF is inching its way toward a significant win in supporting dairy’s sustainability goals, with “climate-smart” agriculture support making its way into a budget reconciliation package taking shape on Capitol Hill.

A $27 billion package spearheaded by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will help dairy farmers advance their sustainability leadership by bolstering farm bill conservation programs in meaningful ways for dairy. Substantial new investments will provide important voluntary technical assistance to dairy farmers who undertake a variety of stewardship practices. The legislation also includes targeted new funding that emphasizes critical farm practices that yield significant environmental benefits for dairy, notably in feed management.

“Dairy farmers have long been proactive land and water stewards because they seize opportunities for innovation,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “We are deeply grateful to Chairwoman Stabenow for her tireless leadership to secure game-changing conservation investments, with a focus on climate-smart practices. These investments will better position dairy farmers to proactively implement the dairy sector’s Net Zero Initiative and fulfill its 2050 environmental stewardship goals.”

Dairy farmers in 2020 committed in their Net Zero Initiative to become greenhouse gas neutral or better by 2050 and maximize water quality around the country.

Congress and the White House are continuing to work to find a compromise on the larger spending bill as November begins.

The overall spending package, long pegged at $3.5 trillion, is likely to be much smaller as Democrats attempt to fund a wide range of spending priorities while simultaneously addressing policy and spending concerns of moderates. NMPF has been actively advocating on behalf of dairy producers and their cooperatives throughout the process to ensure dairy’s interests are represented and protected.

Key wins for dairy among the climate-smart ag provisions of the Build Back Better Act include:

• $9 billion in new funds for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which provides important technical assistance to dairy farmers, targeted toward stewardship practices that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
• $25 million annually for Conservation Innovation Trials, with the new funding targeted toward initiatives that use feed and diet management to reduce enteric methane emissions, which can comprise roughly one-third of a dairy farm’s greenhouse gas footprint. NMPF is excited for this opportunity to amplify its focus on innovative feed additives and rations that reduce enteric emissions;
• A new cover crop initiative to pay producers $25 per acre of established cover crop practices to reduce nutrient runoff and soil erosion; and
• $7.5 billion in new funds for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which funds locally developed, targeted partnership projects, with emphasis on initiatives that incentivize or target reduced methane emissions.

Beyond climate-smart agriculture, as negotiations continue between the White House and Congress, NMPF is pleased to see its priority issues persist in these discussions, including:

• Investment Tax Credit – NMPF is working to incorporate into the reconciliation package the bipartisan Agriculture Environmental Stewardship Act (H.R. 3939, S. 2461). The bill, which NMPF helped develop, would create a 30 percent Investment Tax Credit for methane digesters and nutrient recovery systems. The legislation gained momentum this spring when it was incorporated into the Senate Finance Committee’s larger energy tax marker bill. Now that the Senate has shifted focus to reconciliation, that larger package may serve as the basis for the Senate’s starting position in discussions on the energy tax title of the reconciliation bill. Additionally, the House Ways and Means Committee has advanced key components of the measure in its own tax portion of the reconciliation package.
• Capital Gains Taxes on Inherited Assets – NMPF and others in agriculture succeeded thus far to protect two current provisions regarding taxing capital gains on inherited assets. An early proposal for how to pay for various programs and projects in the reconciliation measure included changing when capital gains on inherited assets would be taxed as well as altering the basis for evaluating the amount to be taxed (a.k.a. the “stepped-up basis). NMPF and other farm groups have worked to prevent both proposed changes from becoming law, with the House Ways and Means Committee excluding these changes in its contribution to the reconciliation package.

NMPF is hopeful its priority issues will be in the final legislation, although circumstances can change rapidly, especially as last-minute negotiations occur. We will continue elevating the importance of these issues to members of Congress and their staffs as the process moves forward.

The September margin for the Dairy Margin Coverage program rose by $1.68/cwt from a month earlier to $6.93/cwt. The jump was driven by a mostly corn price-driven $0.98/cwt drop in the feed cost formula and an $0.80/cwt increase in the all-milk price, to $18.40/cwt.

The resulting $2.58/cwt September DMC payment for $9.50/cwt coverage will be the ninth consecutive such payment well in excess of $2/cwt this year, with the nine-month average totaling $3.08/cwt. When USDA eventually tops up the payments for this year and last with the full dairy-quality alfalfa price figured into the feed cost calculation, the 2021 average payment for the first nine months will be $3.31/cwt.

USDA is expected to pair the announced regulation on the alfalfa price change with that for the separate Supplemental DMC program.

USDA reported that, as of Oct. 25, the 19,029 operations enrolled in this year’s DMC program are expected to receive $981,249,096 in payments, for an average of $51,566 per enrolled operation, based on previously announced margins. This represents payments for January through August and does not include the eventual top-up payments from the alfalfa price change. The dairy futures continue to indicate that there will be at least another DMC payment for $9.50/cwt coverage during the final three months of the year.

Several members of the National Council on Farmer Cooperatives and NMPF met with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Oct. 18 to discuss a pending standard which will require employers with over 100 employees to ensure the workers are vaccinated against COVID-19 or have a negative weekly COVID-19 test.

This action is one part in President Biden’s overall multi-prong plan to vaccinate the unvaccinated. Specifically, the plans states:

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is developing a rule that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work. OSHA will issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to implement this requirement. This requirement will impact over 80 million workers in private sector businesses with 100+ employees.

The president also announced the standard will require employers to provide paid time off for the time it takes for workers to get vaccinated or to recover if they experience post-vaccine symptoms.

The coalition that met with OMB raised numerous concerns about the mandate while making it clear it will continue to advocate for vaccinations. Still, key questions include whether there will be enough tests to handle the demand. If there are insufficient tests to meet demand, the coalition is concerned the program will fail, further disrupting an already fragile supply chain. NMPF suggested that the White House should consider invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA), as it did several times in the past year to address other COVID related issues, to ensure availability of affordable rapid COVID-19 tests.

The group also raised concerns about record-keeping, time-off requirements and potential suspension of the ETS if it creates supply chain disruption, particularly for workers deemed essential by DHS-CISA in its Critical Infrastructure Workers v 4.0 NMPF helped develop in 2020.

The ETS was never a proposed rule, and the details are largely unknown, and stakeholders had very little opportunity to comment on it. The ETS standard is expected to be released this week.

NMPF and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) are planning to comment on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance released Oct. 13 that improperly treats sodium’s role in dairy processing as part of voluntary short-term goals for sodium content in commercially processed, packaged, and prepared foods.

The effort is meant to reduce excess sodium intake over the next 2.5 years while recognizing and supporting the important roles sodium plays in food technology and food safety. But in NMPF’s opinion, FDA got it wrong. NMPF and IDFA in 2016 jointly filed two sets of comments to address countless issues we saw in the then-proposed guidance. The organizations informed FDA that sodium plays a complex and multi-faceted role in cheesemaking that goes well beyond flavor. The comments called for FDA to remove all cheeses and butter from its guidance; other dairy products are not included in the guidance, as they do not contribute a meaningful amount of sodium to the diet.

The final guidance called for sodium reduction in cheese as categorized below:

• From 3.6% reduction up to 17% in 14 cheese categories and several cheese related categories (sauces, dips and spreads);
• A 3.6% reduction in natural cheese Blue with Swiss topping out at 9%; and
• Mozzarella sticks and cheese curds were categorized as appetizers which FDA recommended for a 17% reduction.

The guidance has an open-ended comment period, during which NMPF will be collaborating with IDFA in a forceful response to FDA’s inappropriate action. In the interim, it is important to note this is voluntary. No cheese manufacturer should do anything that would ruin the quality of its products or jeopardize food safety.

Doug Chapin, the dairy producer chairman of Michigan Milk Producers Association and a member of NMPF’s Dairy Trade Envoys program, highlighted on Oct. 14 the importance of exports for his family’s farm as well as the thousands of workers throughout the supply chain that the U.S. dairy industry supports at a virtual townhall organized by Farmers for Free Trade.

Chapin called for more aggressive pursuit of trade policies that can expand market access for U.S. dairy exports by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers that make it harder to compete around the world.

“Aside from the USMCA update to NAFTA, the last new U.S. free trade agreements went into effect nearly a decade ago with negotiations having taken place even earlier than that,” Chapin said. “We seem to either be evaluating or at times negotiating deals, but not implementing new comprehensive trade agreements that eliminate tariffs on our exports.”

NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern thanked Chapin for his leadership.

“We appreciate the opportunity this Farmers for Free Trade townhall has provided to highlight the need for expanded market access for American-made dairy products, and we thank Doug for being willing to share how Washington does impact dairy farmers throughout the country,” Mulhern said. “We believe greater access to other key dairy markets where the U.S. is facing the challenge of competing at a disadvantage, particularly in Asia, will mean continued opportunity and growth for America’s dairy farmers like Chapin Family Farms.”

Chapin is part the first wave of Dairy Trade Envoys, a program that NMPF and USDEC kicked off earlier this year. The envoys, a select group of U.S. dairy farmers and manufacturers, serve as knowledgeable, reliable spokespeople to help complement NMPF staff’s work to provide the dairy perspective on trade policy issues. NMPF created the program in collaboration with USDEC as part of ongoing efforts to better communicate the benefits and importance of U.S. dairy exports to policymakers and the media.

As NMPF continues to reiterate to the U.S. government the need for greater market access opportunities for U.S. dairy, the Trade Policy team is highlighting a need for strong enforcement of agreements already in place to ensure American dairy producers are provided the access already negotiated – notably the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

In two National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) meeting sessions on Oct. 21 and 26 with state agricultural commissioners in October, NMPF staff highlighted the importance of the ongoing dispute settlement proceedings over Canada’s allocation and administration of dairy tariff-rate quotas that run counter to its commitments under the new trade pact. In addition, NMPF emphasized the need for diligence regarding Canada’s other USMCA dairy commitments and for a heightened focus on preserving smooth trade flows with our largest export partner, Mexico.

NMPF is concerned over the potential treatment of farmland under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) comprehensive Strategic Roadmap to confront PFAS contamination nationwide. The strategy, announced Oct. 18, will engage stakeholders as multiple rulemakings related to its plan get underway.

EPA asserts the Roadmap is the result of a thorough analysis conducted by the EPA Council on PFAS that Administrator Michael S. Regan established in April.

The plan is centered on three guiding strategies: increasing investments in research, leveraging authorities to act now to restrict PFAS chemicals from being released into the environment and accelerating the cleanup of PFAS contamination. NMPF has long been an advocate for research in these areas, as so much is unknown about these chemicals and rulemaking should not be made on speculation.

Roadmap key actions include:

• Aggressive timelines to set enforceable drinking water limits under the Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure water is safe to drink in every community.
• A hazardous substance designation under CERCLA, to strengthen the ability to hold polluters financially accountable.
• Timelines for action—whether it is data collection or rulemaking—on Effluent Guideline Limitations under the Clean Water Act for nine industrial categories.
• A review of past actions on PFAS taken under the Toxic Substances Control Act to address those that are insufficiently protective.
• Increased monitoring, data collection and research so that the agency can identify what actions are needed and when to take them.
• A final toxicity assessment for GenX, which can be used to develop health advisories that will help communities make informed decisions to better protect human health and ecological wellness.
• Continued efforts to build the technical foundation needed on PFAS air emissions to inform future actions under the Clean Air Act.

The Roadmap was well received by many environmental groups and some members of Congress. While NMPF has sympathy with some of its goals and provisions, other areas raise serious concerns: In particular, the application of CERCLA to contaminated farmland, to do so can cause that farmland to be a SuperFund site.

EPA will conduct rulemaking under this Roadmap for the next several years. NMPF will continue to engage with EPA during its various and numerous rulemakings related to the plan

Dr. Jamie Jonker, as chair of the IDF Science Program Coordinating Committee, reported on the scientific and technical progress completed by the International Dairy Federation during the past year during the IDF Forum at the Global Dairy Conference held Oct. 13-15.

Dr. Jonker emphasized that the success of IDF “is a direct result of the scientific and technical expertise of more than 1200 global dairy leaders who work on the greater than 150 IDF projects.” In the last year, IDF published nearly 50 bulletins, standards, factsheets, reports, and comment submissions in addition to about 30 scientific and technical webinars. Among the highlights from the last year:

• IDF Virtual Nutrition Symposium highlighting the valuable nutrient density of dairy products as part of a healthy diet
• IDF Virtual International Cheese Science & Technology Symposium imparting the latest information on cheese manufacturing
• IDF Dairy Sustainability Outlook, coinciding with the UNFSS, highlighting sustainable dairy production systems around the world
• IDF Bulletin 507/2020: The Codex General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms Its nature, intent and implication which reaffirmed that dairy products only come from mammalian milk and not plants or laboratories

Despite the challenges during the global pandemic, IDF continued to deliver on its scientific and technical mandate, including standards, technical specifications, methods of analysis, guidelines and standards development from the farm to the consumer. IDF scientific and technical work is tied to how sustainability can be measured to provide evidence to customers and consumers about dairy as part of a sustainable nutritious food.

During the last year, IDF worked collaboratively with the Global Dairy Platform providing scientific and technical information about dairy production and nutrition for the UN Food Systems Summit. Dr. Jonker ended with emphasizing IDF support for the CODEX definition of milk which is “Milk is the normal mammary secretion of milking animals obtained from one or more milkings without either addition to it or extraction from it, intended for consumption as liquid milk or for further processing.”

IDF is the leading source of scientific and technical expertise for all stakeholders of the dairy chain. Since 1903, IDF has provided a mechanism for the dairy sector to reach global consensus on how to help feed the world with safe and sustainable dairy products. A recognized international authority in the development of science-based standards for the dairy sector, IDF has an important role to play in ensuring the right policies, standards, practices and regulations are in place to ensure the world’s dairy products are safe and sustainable.

NMPF sent the chairman of Georgia’s Agriculture and Consumers Affairs committee, as well as the leader of the state’s Raw Milk Study Subcommittee letters urging them to not pass a bill allowing for the sale of raw milk to consumers on Oct 4. Currently, raw milk is only allowed to be sold for pet food in Georgia.

NMPF has long advocated against the sale of raw milk, as it is not only a major public health risk but also is a potential liability for dairy farmers. The letters state, “while choice is an important value, it should not pre-empt consumers’ well-being. To authorize the sale of raw milk and raw milk products is an unnecessary risk to consumer safety and public health. As such, we strongly oppose any legislation which would legalize the sale of raw milk in Georgia.”

The Raw Milk Study Subcommittee is set to meet again in November to further discuss potential legislation.

NMPF joined with the U.S. Dairy Export Council on Oct. 27 in filing with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office a highly detailed set of comments outlining barriers to U.S. dairy exports. The submission was made to inform USTR’s National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, an annual compilation of constraints around the world to U.S. exports.

NMPF emphasized the importance of expanding market access opportunities to better support the U.S. dairy sector, urging the pursuit of new agreements and tariff reductions with key trading partners. The comments also highlighted nontariff trade barriers, particularly those driven by protectionism or overly burdensome policy prescriptions, that make it harder than necessary for U.S. dairy companies to compete in foreign markets. For instance, extensive sections highlight ongoing issues with key trading partners like Mexico (product standards revisions, conformity assessments, geographical indications) and the EU (the bloc’s intervention scheme, certifications, border measures, geographical indications, Farm to Fork plans). Newer barrier areas were also covered, such as Colombia’s milk powder safeguards investigation, Indonesia’s excessively slow dairy facility registration process, and Egypt’s WTO-illegal single-source halal certifier mandate, among other issues.

In total, the comments outline trade issues with 30 countries or regions, as well as concerns related to Codex, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization.

The dairy community will soon be gathering at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas Nov. 14-17 for the 2021 NMPF annual meeting, held in conjunction with the national dairy checkoff organizations overseen by Dairy Management Inc.  With a theme of “Make Every Drop Count,” this year’s event will examine how dairy’s policy and promotion organizations work together globally to build markets for dairy products. The program will cover key topics of interest to farmers, including economics, sustainability, nutrition policy, trade, animal care, and changes in the global dairy marketplace.  The national Young Cooperator program will also hold its annual session on Nov. 14-15.

In addition to NMPF’s Town Hall session, the conference will feature a panel discussion of how NMPF and the national checkoff are working to defend the sustainability of real dairy products, particularly as the marketing environment in the dairy category becomes even more competitive. Another panel will discuss National Milk’s work with the U.S. Dairy Export Council to create high-value new opportunities for American dairy exports. The annual meeting website has more information.

The NMPF’s annual scholarship fundraising raffle is now live! Our new online format allows for wide opportunity to support the NMPF National Dairy Leadership Scholarship program, which is traditionally touted each year at NMPF’s in-person annual meeting but now expanded to ensure broader participation. The raffle can be accessed at go.rallyup.com/NMPFRaffle2021. Tickets may be purchased through Nov. 30 and the raffle drawing will occur Dec. 1. Prizes this year include $750 and $500 American Express gift cards, a $250 Target gift card, a Cabot Creamery Premium Gift Box, a $100 Kansas City Steak gift card, and more.

The scholarship program supports Master’s and Ph.D. students who are conducting research important to dairy farmers. The 2021 recipients are researching ways to predict metritis cure as a path to reducing antimicrobial use in dairy cattle; the stimulation of microbial protein synthesis by branched volatile fatty acids; and welfare implications of caustic paste disbudding and pain mitigation for dairy calves.

The scholarship program is largely funded through the raffle fundraiser, so your ticket purchases are immensely appreciated.

Sustaining this program means ensuring that critical research benefiting the entire dairy community can continue.

The Galen family at Milkwood Farm (Lynn Dairy) in Neillsville, WI and Emily Pankratz with Holtz Ridge Grass Farms (Saputo) in Rudolph, WI were selected out of 84 entries as the winners of the FARM Program Employee Appreciation Pizza Party as part of FARM’s participation in World Dairy Expo.

Dairy farmers and managers were encouraged to enter for the chance to treat their employees when they visited the FARM booth during World Dairy Expo, Sept. 28-Oct. 2. During the trade show, FARM Program staff shared resources with visitors including the 2021 Year in Review, the Calf Care Quality Assurance (CCQA) Manual, and the Drug Residue Pocket Guide. They also answered farmer and stakeholder questions about current Version 4.0 expectations and the beginning stages of Version 5.0 planning.

FARM Program staff also attended the American Association of Bovine Practitioners Annual Conference October 7-9, during which veterinarians had an opportunity to ask questions, gather resources, and have conversations at FARM’s booth. FARM also participated in a joint session with the Beef Quality Assurance Program at the conference to provide program updates about current standards and future revisions, FARM Biosecurity, and CCQA.

CWT member cooperatives secured 35 contracts in October adding 650,000 pounds of American-type cheeses, 628,000 pounds of butter, 20 million pounds of whole milk powder and 926,000 pounds of cream cheese to CWT-assisted sales in 2021. These products will go customers in Asia, Middle East-North Africa, Europe, Central America, Caribbean and South America, and will be shipped from October 2021 through March 2022.

CWT-assisted 2021 dairy product sales contracts year-to-date total 38.3 million pounds of American-type cheese, 13.3 million pounds of butter, 6.1 million pounds of anhydrous milkfat, 11.3 million pounds of cream cheese and 44 million pounds of whole milk powder. This brings the total milk equivalent for the year to 1.228 billion pounds on a milkfat basis.

Exporting dairy products is critical to the viability of dairy farmers and their cooperatives across the country. Whether or not a cooperative is actively engaged in exporting cheese, butter, anhydrous milkfat, cream cheese, or whole milk powder, moving products into world markets is essential. CWT provides a means to move domestic dairy products to overseas markets by helping to overcome U.S. dairy’s trade disadvantages.

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.