When the history of the U.S. dairy industry is written, the highlights of the chapter on globalization circa 1995 to 2015 will include milestones like the cap on EU export subsidies, the opening of Mexico under NAFTA, the increase in dairy consumption as the middle class has grown in emerging markets, and the China melamine crisis. Now you can add the birth of the U.S. whole milk powder (WMP) industry to the mix of most significant, game-changing developments of the last 20 years.

Why should U.S. processors publicly commit to enhanced traceability best practices released this week? I can answer that in just two words: business benefits.

Discussions concerning the paperwork involved with U.S. dairy exports can be about as interesting as watching cheddar age. U.S. dairy suppliers selling to foreign buyers want the required forms filled and processed as quickly, as accurately and with as little hassle as possible and don’t want to think about it. And that is exactly why the latest developments from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) are so exciting.

U.S. dairy exports to the European Union (EU) averaged around $87 million per year for the past five years. Annual EU dairy shipments to the United States averaged more than $1.1 billion over that same period.

Hershey Co. announced last month it was launching a new brand in China called Lancaster. The product is a “milk candy”—a $1.2 billion category in China and one of the nation’s fastest-growing candy varieties.

It is time to embrace milk protein concentrates (MPCs).

If someone asks you to name the current cheese price, you would probably quote the latest CME block cheddar close. And if you want to hedge your milk costs, your cheese sales or your inventory values, you can do so relatively simply using CME Class III or cheese futures. But if you’re in the milk powder business—either a seller or a buyer—how do you know what a load is worth? And how can you hedge against price movements when prices are all over the board, each series has different rules on which transactions are included and each actor may price off a different series?

Nina Bakht Halal is USDEC’s Middle East office representative, based in Beirut. In this Q&A, Halal answers questions about dairy marketing opportunities in the Middle East/North Africa.

In this issue, USDEC’s Middle East office representative provides a number of insights on the region. Among them: 1) the Middle East is erroneously seen as universally in turmoil; and 2) for U.S. suppliers to make inroads into what is a lucrative and growing dairy market, they need to put in more face time.

U.S. cheese exports grew nearly 16 percent in 2012, breaking the $1 billion mark for the first time. This was no fluke, no temporary spike in sales. This was a milestone more than a decade in the making.

The Middle East imports roughly 90 percent of the food it consumes—an astonishing figure that is unlikely to decline anytime soon. Limited water and limited arable land equal limited agricultural potential. At the same time, the region boasts significant purchasing power, a growing middle class, a large, youthful population, rapid expansion in the retail, foodservice and food manufacturing sectors, and historical familiarity with the nutrition inherent in dairy.

In the ongoing maturation of the U.S. dairy industry as a global player, we took another step forward in 2012.

In all the media reports about the ambitious global expansion plans of McDonald’s, Subway and the Yum! family of restaurants (Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell), it might seem like the mega-chains are the only international game in town. There is in fact a thriving, locally-based, foodservice-chain second tier in most emerging markets that is expanding rapidly, increasingly beyond national boundaries and into surrounding regions. Often specializing in U.S.-style fare, many of these restaurants are sizeable users of cheese and prime examples of growing but often-overlooked potential customers for U.S. dairy.

The U.S. government is in the midst of a major overhaul of food safety regulations via the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). In addition, consumers in the United States and abroad are more attuned than ever to food safety issues due to a series of widespread tainted-food incidents. Globalization, technology and the near-instantaneous media spread of any food safety misstep demand an accelerated response to food safety questions.

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.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co. would have been considered enemies of the dairy industry. Today, Pepsi and Coke’s investments in dairy processing operations and dairy-based new product development have not only made them partners to the industry, but also speak volumes about globalization, nutrition trends and future sector growth.