CWT Assists with 5.8 Million Pounds Export Sales

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 23 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Foremost Farms USA, Land O’Lakes, and Tillamook County Creamery Association to sell 4.791 million pounds (2,173 metric tons) of Cheddar, Gouda and Monterey Jack cheese, and 1.032 million pounds (468 metric tons) of 82% butter to customers in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and South Pacific. The product will be delivered in February through June 2014.

Year-to-date, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in selling 25.329 million pounds of cheese, 7.276 million pounds of butter and 698,865 pounds of whole milk powder to 19 countries on four continents. These sales are the equivalent of 397.8 million pounds of milk on a milkfat basis.

Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program, in the long-term, helps member cooperatives gain and maintain market share, thus expanding the demand for U.S. dairy products and the U.S. farm milk that produces them. This, in turn, positively impacts U.S. dairy farmers by strengthening and maintaining the value of dairy products that directly impact their milk price.

CWT will pay export assistance to the bidders only when delivery of the product is verified by the submission of the required documentation.

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 the dairy farmers’ milk prices and margins