Tag: dairy

CWT Assists with 3.6 Million Pounds of Dairy Product Export Sales

Posted on by Khadija Gibson-White

ARLINGTON, VA – Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) member cooperatives accepted 39 offers of export assistance from CWT that helped them capture sales contracts for 3.2 pounds million (1,500 MT) of American-type cheese and 353,000 pounds (160 MT) of whole milk powder. The product is going to customers in Asia, Central America, the Caribbean and Middle East-North Africa, and will be delivered from January through July 2024.

CWT-assisted member cooperative year-to-date export sales total 7.2 million pounds of American-type cheeses, 6.6 million pounds of whole milk powder and 231,000 pounds of cream cheese. The products are going to 10 countries in four regions. These sales are the equivalent of 116.1 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis. Over the last 12 months, CWT assisted sales are the equivalent of 918.9 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 Bjerga on Plant-Based vs. Lab-Based Labeling Concerns

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications Alan Bjerga discusses the differing challenges of plant-based beverages that use dairy terms vs. lab-created dairy alternatives using a replicated dairy protein, in an interview with WEKZ radio in Janesville, WI. While plant-based beverages have widely divergent nutritional profiles, lab-based dairy does incorporate actual dairy — but doesn’t duplicate the complex interactions and processes that create a true dairy product.

NMPF’s Bjerga On Equity in Federal Nutrition Programs

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Senior Vice President for Communications Alan Bjerga discusses dairy’s need to promote its nutritional value for all consumers as concern for equity among all populations, including those that are lactose-intolerant, becomes a focus of federal nutrition policy. Bjerga also reveals his pick for the Super Bowl in an interview with WEKZ radio, Janesville, WI.

Dairy is Retro-Hot With Demand That’s Back to the ’50s

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

Note: This article first appeared in Hoard’s Dairyman Intel.

By Alan Bjerga
Senior Vice President, Communications, NMPF

With this year’s USDA report on per-capita U.S. dairy consumption, the industry has finally moved past the 1960s. In terms of favor with the American public, dairy has returned to 1959.

Sound strange?

It’s true.

The USDA’s annual report on per-capita U.S. dairy consumption released Friday, September 30, saw an emphatic rise in domestic dairy demand, going from 655 pounds per person in 2020 to 667 pounds per person last year. That’s a level of dairy popularity that surpasses 1960, when it was 659 pounds, and is approaching 1959’s consumer appeal of 672 pounds.

In other words, the last time Americans wanted as much dairy as they do today, Elvis was in the Army. And keep in mind, the 1959 population of the United States. then was only slightly more than half of what it is now. And exports, which now take up nearly 20% of domestic production, barely existed back in those days.

So, what does this say about the industry?

What it doesn’t say is that Americans are consuming dairy the same way now as they did then. Fluid milk has continued its slow decline, according to the USDA data. But cheese continues to rise – American-style cheese consumption reached another record last year. And butter – well, butter actually is returning to Eisenhower-era levels, so in that case, a “Back to the Future” comparison may be appropriate.

But even as the dairy product consumption mix shifts over time, the overall positive trajectory – the 2021 gain is the seventh in the past eight years – is clear, and impressive. Despite more and more competition from nondairy competitors . . . despite an increasingly demanding consumer . . . and despite disruptions that range from diet fads to pandemics . . . consumers continue to find dairy increasingly useful, preferable, and important. That’s a tribute to the hard work of dairy farmers and the entire industry. And it’s worth celebrating.

So put on your turntable some Buddy Holly, some Johnny Cash, maybe some Little Richard, or whatever else suits your taste as dairy celebrates. Maybe serve some cheese, some yogurt, or if you’re feeling really old-school, some whole milk – a bright spot in the fluid segment. Just stay away from playing any Chubby Checker. “The Twist” was a hit in 1960. And as dairy breaks historical barriers to reach ever-higher levels of popularity, that’s so last year.

Dairy Unites Around National Dairy Month

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

National Dairy Month each June means a chance to celebrate all that U.S. dairy does to nourish consumers around the world and highlight the industry’s success, advancements and efforts to build a better future. RFD-TV’s Janet Atkison hosts a round-table discussion with DMI’s Jessica Learman, NMPF’s Alan Bjerga and Galen Smith, owner of Coldspring Farms in Deming, WA.

NMPF’s Bjerga on White House Nutrition Conference

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications Alan Bjerga discusses the planned White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health later this year, the first major White House conference on nutrition in more than 50 years. Bjerga discusses the changes in U.S. nutrition and nutrition policy during that time, and how keeping dairy’s place in diets prominent is critical toward ensuring a healthy, hunger-free future for the United States, on WEKZ radio.

NMPF’s Bjerga on the Dairy Economy, FMMO Modernization and Fake Milk

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Senior Vice President for Communications, Alan Bjerga, discusses dairy issues ranging from pricing to fake milk with KASM radio of Albany, MN, at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Issues Forum in Washington, DC. Record milk prices are coming with higher costs as well; meanwhile, NMPF is positioned to lead on Federal Milk Marketing Order modernization, a farmer-led process.

NMPF’s Bjerga on Rising Input-Cost Impacts

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF Senior Vice President for Communications Alan Bjerga discusses the impact of higher input costs for dairy farmers on RFD-TV. Responses to higher prices vary widely depending on individual farm factors, such as whether a farm produces its own feed or has to buy it. Meanwhile, the outlook for near-record prices is raising hope among farmers, but is tempered by higher costs and greater global uncertainty.

NMPF’s Bjerga on Agriculture and Ukraine’s Humanitarian Crisis

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

NMPF Senior Vice President of Communications Alan Bjerga discusses the widening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and Eastern Europe on RFD-TV. NMPF’s Board of Directors last week moved to ask federal policymakers to expand all forms of domestic energy production to ease expected price spikes for farmers; meanwhile, the Board also encouraged NMPF to seek out ways dairy producers can offer humanitarian and agricultural assistance to Ukrainians, which is expected to be both a short- and longer-term effort.

NMPF’s Bjerga on Dairy Sales, Gruyere

Posted on by Alan Bjerga

 

NMPF Senior Vice President for Communications Alan Bjerga discusses positive trends in retail dairy sales, along with the broader implications of a recent court win for U.S. cheesemakers, on WEKZ radio. Grocery-store sales of cheese, butter, yogurt and other dairy products are up over pre-pandemic levels, as a consumer return to reliable, high-quality products during the pandemic takes deeper roots.