At Economist conference, USDEC President and CEO Krysta Harden explains the strides U.S. dairy has made and the help farmers and processors need to do more.

The Minnesota-based company works with global customers to find new opportunities using high-protein dairy ingredients. 

A new relationship with a leading food innovation and research center is one of several USDEC efforts emphasizing "people, promotions and partnerships." 

Swiss Valley Farms was rejected, then rudely insulted, when it first explored exports eight years ago. Today, the small company with a global vision is the 2016 Exporter of the Year.

For years, companies like Vietnam's Vinamilk have been ahead of the United States in robotic automation. But the gap may close. 

CDI honored in Chicago today as 2015 Tom Camerlo Exporter of the Year.

Global customers want dairy sustainability. U.S. exporters are providing it by minimizing water use, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and waste.

Plenty of opportunities exist, such as meeting the nutritional needs of an aging world population.

Investments underscore Dairy Farmers of America's long-term commitment to U.S. dairy exports. 

China's appetite for imported UHT milk could more than quadruple from 2013 to 2020.

To become more valuable to their customers, U.S. dairy suppliers need to provide service and technical know-how.

The U.S. is the largest processed cheese manufacturer in the world, but must translate its know-how to foreign markets.

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.

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.

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.

Regular readers of this column know U.S. dairy exports have been steadily rising over the past decade-plus. The volume of U.S. milk solids shipped overseas grew from the equivalent of 5.5 percent of total annual solids produced in this country in 2000 to 13.3 percent of solids produced last year. And as we mature as an exporting industry, the composition of those exports is changing. Not only are we exporting more dairy products, we are shipping a far greater percentage of higher value, higher profit items than ever before.

You’ve read before in this column and likely in other ag and food business publications about rising global dairy demand, rising dairy appetites in emerging markets and rising export opportunities for U.S. suppliers. This time, let’s get specific and delve more deeply into just what “globalization” looks like for cheese.