Many foreign buyers wonder where they can find a reliable supply of dairy products. It is an opportunity for U.S. suppliers.  

Increased milk production in New Zealand, the EU and elsewhere can't be ignored.  

2013 was a great year for U.S. dairy exports, as outlined in this PowerPoint presentation and YouTube video.

Mexico remains the biggest customer for U.S. dairy products, purchasing a record $1.43 billion in 2013.

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

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.

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

Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced it would reduce its global economic growth forecast for 2012. It was the latest in a line of unfavorable economic news from around the world, and it raises an important question: With global growth struggling in a time of increasingly globalized dairy markets, what does that mean to world dairy trade and U.S. exports in particular?

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.

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.

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.

Media reports about global food inflation have come fast and furious in recent weeks. And while there certainly are reasons to be concerned that continued price hikes will cause budding dairy consumers in emerging markets to temper their buying habits, there is also evidence that the developing world has come to accept that dairy in the diet doesn’t come on the cheap.

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.

Signs of global economic recovery have been slowly, but steadily emerging for the past six months. Certainly no one would say we are safely out of the woods—the recent Greek financial crisis being the latest threat to stability. But on a world scale, news reports of GDP growth are encouraging.