The U.S. Dairy Export Council has been working to grow markets in niche areas to diversify dairy’s global portfolio.
U.S. dairy exports totaled $9.5 billion in 2022, easily surpassing the industry’s previous record of $7.6 billion, set in 2021. It marked the third year in a row that US dairy exports recorded new highs. But this year, exports have slowed due to market fluctuations in different regions of the globe, according to USDEC Chairman Alex Peterson.
“Mexico has been doing phenomenal. Other parts of the world have been a little slower to come out of the pandemic,” he says. “But all in all, the trend line of U.S. dairy exports from 25 years ago when it was 3 or 4 percent to 17 percent now — we are right where we want to be, and we are seeing wins all over the place.”
USDEC is targeting some new markets with specific products. Peterson recently visited Japan to market cheese to a popular chef. He says Japan is a great market opportunity because of its large population and its love for artisan cheese.
“One of the ways we’re building demand for U.S. cheese in demand is the Hattori Culinary School, training chefs and culinary students on USA cheese,” he says. “This culinary school is just a phenomenal way to reach chefs that are emerging in a market where food service is a huge part of what goes on.”
But the work doesn’t stop at the Iron Chef Yukio Hattori. Peterson has also been in Singapore spreading the word that dairy can answer the protein needs of the population.
“We are helping our domestic processors figure out how to adapt their products into how they are already consuming food,” he explains. “If we can take their morning drink, and get them to put dairy protein isolates in it to really beef up that nutrition for immunity for an aging population, that’s a win as well.”
As he alluded to, marketing dairy isn’t all about selling cheese to restaurateurs. USDEC is marketing everything from common dairy products to specific ingredients, such as dairy protein isolates. This is where the specialists come in. USDEC staff works to better understand cultural food and flavor needs in order to introduce dairy components that make sense to a region.