Special August Board Meeting Will Assess Proposed CWT Improvements
August 1, 2024
NMPF’s Board of Directors will hold a special, virtual meeting Aug. 22 to review and potentially a package of changes to the Cooperatives Working Together export assistance program, with the goal of implementing the changes on Jan. 1.
NMPF’s Executive Committee approved July 9 a CWT renewal package initially developed and endorsed by NMPF’s CWT Task Force. The renewal process now requires Board approval, after which individual co-ops will determine their support for the program in its new form.
The Board will reconvene at its Oct. 21 meeting to evaluate the level of support for the program going into 2025.
The package approved by the CWT Task Force and the Executive Committee includes updates in the areas of Product Mix; Bid Process Adjustments; and Market Development. The recommendations include updates to or new resources in the following program areas:
- All cheese varieties will be eligible for CWT’s price gap support
- CWT will create targeted pilot programs to address tariff coverage for value-added skim milk powder sales to Southeast Asia, and a target market premium for cheese sales to Central America & the Caribbean
- CWT will offer fat-equivalent support for the following products: ESL/aseptic fluid milk; evaporated/condensed milk; and ice cream
- CWT will increase its operating program bid flexibility to extend eligible delivery periods to 12 months, and remove volume limits on a trial basis
- CWT staff will provide increased insight on bid acceptance parameters, sharing a short summary with weekly offers explaining shifts in support levels
- CWT will create an advisory group to provide strategic direction and market development support, with a Phase I emphasis on pre-competitive support that provides opportunities for all cooperatives to participate.
July-to-Date CWT-Assisted Export Sales Top 5.8 Million Pounds
CWT member cooperatives secured 52 contracts in July with one week still outstanding for the month. These contracts added 5.8 million pounds of product to CWT-assisted sales in 2024. In milk equivalent, equal to 56.8 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. These products will go to customers in Asia, Central America, the Caribbean and Oceania and will be shipped from July 2024 through January 2025.
Full-month numbers were not available at the time of publication.
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.
