From Day 1, the U.S. Dairy Export Council’s (USDEC’s) message to the U.S. dairy industry has been one of global trade opportunities created by the rapidly expanding middle class in emerging markets. Higher per capita incomes for the middle class, particularly when coupled with population growth, equate to a significant rise in dairy consumption—so significant that traditional exporters and those markets’ own domestic industries would not become able to meet their needs.

Another year will soon be in the books and given market conditions, it was, from an export perspective, a pretty good one. Through 10 months, U.S. dairy exports grew 11 percent to $4.4 billion. Volume of major products rose a combined 5.5 percent to more than 1.3 million metric tons. Despite slower action later in the year than earlier, these are good numbers.

Russia is one of the largest dairy importers in the world, purchasing about 440,000 metric tons of milk powder, cheese, butterfat, whey protein and lactose in 2011 worth nearly $2 billion. Yet for more than two years, the United States has been locked out of the market due to Russian export certificate demands.

U.S. cheese export value through July topped $680 million—well on its way to breaking the $1-billion mark, a more than seven fold increase over 2000. The United States is firmly planted as the No. 3 cheese supplier to the world and we are gaining share.

We’re in the right place at the right time. The global dairy industry is a growth sector―that much is crystal clear.

Back in 1997, the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments began making the case for a voluntary dairy food safety program called HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). This program remains an internationally accepted, science-based system for ensuring food safety controls. At the time, the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance was doing the heavy lifting on dairy safety. HACCP was heralded not as a replacement for the PMO, but rather as another (voluntary) tool used to reinforce quality and customer satisfaction.

A week or so before Thanksgiving, Mexico became our first billion-dollar overseas market. It was like watching our first-born go through a graduation ceremony—the satisfying reward after years of careful nurturing.

The gavel fell on the 11th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade talks March 9, 2012, in Melbourne, Australia. While negotiators still need to resolve many issues, the prospective deal could evolve into a far better proposition than when U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk first announced U.S. participation in 2009.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s release of year-end export data today spoke two messages loud and clear: 1) The U.S. industry has traveled a long way on the path toward becoming a consistent global dairy supplier, and 2) the U.S. industry will need to remain vigilant to maintain and build on last year’s solid performance, particularly in the face of tougher market conditions.

The New Year brings with it numerous reasons for dairy optimism, as well as thorny questions. What follows is a look at key issues the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) expects will dominate our discussions in 2012

The October passage of implementing legislation for the Colombia, Panama and South Korea free trade agreements (FTAs) and President Obama’s subsequent signing of the deals are cause to celebrate.

In the last three years, China has become the world’s largest single dairy importer—by far—purchasing more than twice as much as runner-up Russia. As such, it’s almost impossible to understate the impact of the melamine crisis on the global dairy situation since the fall of 2008.

In August 2011, shortly after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating and debt troubles resurfaced in Europe, the U.S. dollar soared against the New Zealand and Australian dollars, rising about 8.5 percent in a little over a week—a considerable jump in so short a period. People immediately began fearing the worst for U.S. dairy exports.

You should be familiar by now with the findings of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy’s 2009 “Globalization Report.” The comprehensive strategic analysis of the global dairy landscape meticulously outlined world supply-demand trends and how they were affecting the U.S. dairy industry.

Can you imagine anyone in the New Zealand or Australia dairy sector debating the merits of pursuing exports? Do industry participants in the Netherlands or Denmark ever ponder whether globalization is here to stay? Do they distinguish their customer base between domestic and overseas?

One of the unfortunate byproducts of a more globalized dairy industry is an increased incidence of non-tariff barriers to trade. Even as global dairy demand rises, new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements are erecting roadblocks for U.S. dairy suppliers that are, in some cases, more burdensome than tariff barriers.

Like Halley’s Comet, milk pricing “paradigm shifts” come along every so often and make us sit up and take notice. The last sighting was in the 1970s: over the course of the decade, the farmgate milk price doubled and never looked back, the effect of a new, higher baseline in the cost of production.

In late November, more than two years after China issued a blanket recall of all domestically manufactured dairy products in an attempt to choke off its melamine scandal, Chinese authorities found yet another batch of products—this time a corn-flavored dairy beverage—with excessive levels of melamine.

Global demographics are shifting, and central to that shift is the expansion of the world’s middle class.

On paper, based on published cheese, butter and powder prices, U.S. dairy suppliers currently have a huge edge over European Union (EU) and Oceania exporters. The casual observer may wonder why then U.S. overseas sales aren’t quickly ramping back up. In reality, the apparent pricing advantage isn’t always quite what it seems.