• Cheese, whey lead July exports

• USDEC gets results on GCC cheese standards

• IAG meeting Oct. 5-6
• Hybrid fall membership meeting

• Last chance to register for All-Member webinar

• Fi Asia’s Dairy Day

• Market Summary: Top 20 global dairy companies

• New Japan innovation partnership

• New Mexico cheese culinary partnership

• In-person activities return to Egypt

• Darigold plant emphasizes sustainability

• Company news: Emmi, Saputo, Westland, Yili

 

Cheese, whey lead U.S. exports in July
A 27% increase in cheese volume and an 18% gain in whey shipments led U.S. dairy exports to another positive month in July. Total U.S. exports rose 7% (milk solids equivalent) compared to the previous July and were up 12% year to date. They remain on record pace for the year.

July represented the 6^th straight month of year-over-year U.S. dairy export gains.

On a value basis, July exports increased 21% year over year to $667.9 million. Through the first seven months, U.S. dairy export value was $4.48 billion, 14% more than the previous year.

Diverse cheese buyers
U.S. cheese exports set a July record, with volume rising 27% to 36,804 MT. Growth was broad-based across most geographies, but Latin America continues to stand out as a major growth market. July cheese exports to Central America more than doubled (+2,382 MT) and the region accounts for more than half of U.S. cheese export growth so far this year. July U.S. cheese sales to Mexico jumped 23% (+1,796 MT).

Favorable U.S. pricing, vaccination progress in South America, nations forging ahead with economic reopenings, and improving tourism numbers in Mexico and Central America are all driving volume to the region. Additionally, the majority of cheese shipped to Latin America leaves the U.S. via the southern border or out of U.S. Gulf or East Coast ports, thereby lessening the impact of West Coast port congestion.

WPC80+ going strong
China continues to drive overall U.S. whey exports. Total July shipments to China rose 35% (+6,246 MT) compared to the previous year. But when you slice into the different HS Codes, you’ll notice more broad-based positive growth in the high-value WPC80+ category.

China still leads all WPC80+ buyers, accounting for more than a quarter of U.S. exports, but we continued to see widespread gains across geographies in July, a positive sign moving forward. Exports to China were up 23% (+300 MT); Japan rose 51% (+331 MT), Canada jumped 61% (+280 MT), Latin America (excluding Mexico) doubled (+244 MT), Mexico more than quadrupled (+182 MT); and the UK surged 90% (+275 MT).

Milk powder dips
The strength in cheese and whey helped mitigate the first year-over-year decline in U.S. NFDM/SMP exports since January. Hampered by port issues, NFDM/SMP shipments fell 3%, almost entirely due to reduced shipments to major markets in Southeast Asia (-31%, -9,365 MT).

More than 60% of U.S. NFDM/SMP sent via ocean freight is shipped out of the ports in California, which remains the epicenter of port congestion here in U.S. Unfortunately, the data suggests the congestion got worse in July rather than better.

For a full rundown and in-depth analysis of July trade data, read the U.S. Dairy Exporter Blog story, “Cheese and whey lead U.S. dairy exports to 6^th straight month of growth.” In addition, experiment with the interactive charts in the U.S. Export Data section at usdec.org and download the Latest Month Trade Data Summary.

UAE accepts USDEC comments on proposed changes to cheese standards
In a victory for U.S. cheese suppliers, the UAE’s Ministry of Industry & Advanced Technology (MoIAT) clarified or revised several elements of proposed cheese regulations in accordance with comments submitted by USDEC in July (see Global Dairy eBrief, 7/30/21).

USDEC’s comments covered draft technical regulations on seven varietal cheeses: mozzarella, edam, gouda, brie, camembert, havarti and cheddar. While the overall compositional requirements and ingredient allowances of the proposed regulations mostly aligned with the corresponding Codex standards, there were several potentially concerning new requirements that USDEC noted, including the omission of annatto as an additive and implied mandatory limits on salt content.

The UAE’s MoIAT not only agreed to add annatto and clarified that salt limits were voluntary, but made several other changes USDEC outlined in the comments.

“The agency’s swift action is another example of how USDEC and the MARA team is affecting positive change in market access and regulatory matters and proactively addressing potential barriers to U.S. dairy trade,” noted Jonathan Gardner, USDEC senior vice president, market access and regulatory affairs.

 

Get active in USDEC’s ingredient marketing plans at October IAG meeting
Members will have an opportunity to provide feedback on USDEC’s proposed 2022 ingredient marketing program tactics at next month’s Ingredient Advisory Group (IAG) meeting. The meeting takes place virtually from 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET across two days: Oct. 5 and 6. The IAG convenes at least twice a year to give members a chance to help shape USDEC’s strategic priorities and ensure that those priorities effectively align with commercial business interests. If you are interested in participating in the IAG, please contact Allison Guzman at aguzman@usdec.org.

USDEC goes hybrid with fall membership meeting
USDEC’s fall membership meeting will break new ground in October by offering members a chance to either attend in person or participate virtually. This hybrid approach aims to approximate a return to “normal” business while also providing an option for those who are uncomfortable traveling, can't travel or just want to tune in remotely.

The meeting takes place Oct. 18-19 at Chicago’s Swissôtel. For those attending in-person, it will look similar to previous in-person events, with some COVID safety twists. USDEC, the hotel and the city of Chicago require universal masking, regardless of vaccination status, as well as social distancing where possible. There will be less interaction at the registration tables, and we will have no microphone runners for Q&As. You will be able to ask questions using your laptop, tablet and other mobile devices and there will be stationary microphones available for use.

Online attendees will observe all general session presentations through a virtual meeting portal that includes a Q&A function visible to our presenters, enabling members to interact with the event in real time.

To download the preliminary agenda, click here. To register for the event, click here. In addition, you can invite a colleague to attend as well by clicking here. (Please note: Colleagues will need a USDEC log-in to register—to request a log-in, please contact Luke Waring at lwaring@usdec.org or Weston Abels at wabels@usdec.org.)

Stay tuned for more information on the fall meeting in the coming weeks.

USDEC prepares for Fi Asia’s virtual “Dairy Day”
When Food Ingredients Asia (Fi Asia) recently opted to go virtual with its 2021 expo instead of holding the show in-person in Bangkok, USDEC shifted back into virtual mode as well, organizing a series of presentations for what Fi Asia is calling “Dairy Day” on Sept. 14. We encourage you to spread the word about the presentations to your customers in Southeast Asia.

The USDEC sessions will highlight U.S. dairy innovation and sustainability, with a focus on incorporating milk and whey proteins into products specifically designed to Southeast Asian consumer tastes and nutritional trends.

Speakers include
USDEC has lined up a roster of expert speakers for Dairy Day.

• Donna Berry, food scientist, consultant and owner of Dairy and Food Communications, will explore the reasons behind rising dairy protein demand as well as real commercial products made with dairy proteins.
  
  
• Japnit Singh, deputy chief executive officer of Spire Research and Consulting, will introduce dairy protein innovation opportunities stemming from Thai consumer research.
  
  
• Martin Teo, technical director-food applications, USDEC Southeast Asia office, will cover ready-to-drink protein beverages and selecting the right U.S. protein ingredients (in terms of nutrition, functionality and sensory properties) to meet regional consumers’ requirements.
  
  
• Four USDEC members will speak specifically about their own company offerings and how they can help Southeast Asia’s food and beverage sector capitalize on rising demand for protein-powered foods and drinks.
  
  
• Kara McDonald, USDEC vice president, marketing communications, will tackle U.S. dairy farmers’ and processors’ sustainability achievements and ambitious future goals.

Next day
In addition to Dairy Day, USDEC’s Teo will also appear at Fi Asia on Sept. 15 in a webinar co-hosted with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. That pre-recorded presentation will highlight how U.S. dairy proteins can be used to support active, healthy aging in Southeast Asia.

The entire Fi Asia virtual expo runs from Sept. 9-22. Dairy Day is Sept. 14. For more information on the event, go to the Fi Asia website. For questions about Dairy Day and the USDEC sessions, please contact Keith Meyer at kmeyer@usdec.org.

Last chance to register for next week’s All-Member Webinar
USDEC’s annual All-Member Webinar is exactly one week away. On Friday, Sept. 10, from 12:45-2:15 p.m. ET, staff experts will walk through the 2022 business plan—“A Unified Strategy for Long-Term Growth”—with additional presentations on USDEC’s Market Outlook, Trade Policy and Market Access and Regulatory Affairs.

Q&A periods during the webinar will allow you to ask questions about USDEC plans, programs and priorities. You won’t want to miss it. Register here for the event.

If you haven’t already downloaded the plan, you can do so here. (You will need a usdec.org username and password to access it.) If you need assistance accessing the plan, please contact Weston Abels at wabels@usdec.org.

 

Top 20 dairy companies see sales slide in 2020
The impact of the pandemic was evident in Rabobank’s latest Global Dairy Top 20 list. Last year, although it was a small drop (-0.1% in U.S. dollar terms), the top 20 global dairy companies posted their first combined turnover decline since sales slid 1.6% in 2016.

In fact, according to Rabobank’s tally, from 2000-2020, the combined turnover of the top 20 companies more than doubled, expanding by 3.8% annually (although growth was slower over the last decade).

It was a rare slip, driven in part by a sharp drop in the number of mergers and acquisitions among the group (likely additional fallout from COVID-19). Only 80 deals were announced vs. an average of more than 110 the previous four years. You’d have to go back again to 2016 when the top 20 clocked 81 deals to get near this year’s total.

New leader
An ongoing string of acquisitions by Lactalis coupled with divestments and an increasing focus on dairy alternatives by Nestlé saw the French cheese and dairy giant knock the long-time global dairy kingpin out of the No. 1 position this year (as measured by 2020 sales plus acquisitions completed by June 30, 2021). The number wasn’t even close, with Lactalis taking a more-than-$2-billion lead. Just four years earlier, Nestlé had a $6-billion lead over Lactalis.

Lactalis should extend its lead by next year’s report, given that its acquisitions of the Kraft Heinz natural cheese business and various divisions of Bel Groupe were not included in its total.

Apart from the major flip-flop at the top, other changes in rank were relatively minor. Kraft Heinz made the biggest leap, going from 18 to 15. France’s Sodiaal saw the largest fall, dropping from 14 to 17.

But for the fifth year in a row, no new names joined the list. To download the full Rabobank report, click here.

Download USDEC pricing app
Price trends are always at your fingertips. All you need to do is download the USDEC Commodity Prices Finder app, a mobile resource for tracking a variety of USDA dairy commodity prices. It is available at the Apple Store for iOS devices and Google Play for Android.

If line is trending up, currency is strengthening vs. U.S. dollar (U.S. dollar is weakening). This is favorable for exports, because it increases import purchasing power. If line is trending down, currency is weakening vs. U.S. dollar (U.S. dollar is strengthening).  This is unfavorable for exports, because it decreases import purchasing power. Currency exchange rates are calculated for Wednesday of each week. Source: Oanda.com.

 

New Japan partnership opens with health and wellness webinar
Sept. 29 will mark the public debut of USDEC’s new nutrition innovation partnership with Japan’s Kiyota Sangyo. The new partnership agreement, initiated this past spring, looks to support U.S. dairy protein exports to Japan by helping USDEC and U.S. suppliers better identify and meet the demands of the Japanese marketplace.

The potential is definitely there. Data from Innova Market Insights shows that new whey protein product introductions in Japan doubled from 2015-2020, rising at a compound annual growth rate of more than 16% and reaching a record high last year.

On Sept. 29, speakers from Kiyota Sangyo, Ritsumeikan University, food and ag consultancy Significant Outcomes and USDEC will present at a webinar titled, “Pro-Protein: New Product Creations Expand Audiences with U.S. Dairy.” The 1.5-hour event will highlight how, within an increasingly crowded protein marketplace, U.S. dairy proteins deliver an advantageously differentiated and unmatched solutions package for products tailored to the health needs and flavor preferences of Japanese consumers.

The webinar will also feature prototype concepts of everyday Japan-friendly foods developed by USDEC in collaboration with Kiyota Sangyo.

About Kiyota Sangyo
Kiyota Sangyo is an innovation solutions-focused consulting company specializing in providing new product ideation and recipe/formulation development support to food and beverage manufacturers, offering a total support ecosystem to test and take new product concepts from imagination to reality. The partnership scope includes but is not limited to developing Japan-friendly health and wellness applications with U.S. dairy protein ingredients, harnessing their expertise to create new product concepts that impress Japanese food manufacturers with their commercial potential while winning with health-conscious Japanese consumers.

Tell your customers
We encourage USDEC members to invite your Japan-based reps and customers to participate Registration will open next week, with further Japanese-language information posted here.

The webinar is open for members to view as well, but be advised that it will be conducted entirely in Japanese. For more details, including speaker names, click here. To request further information about the event, please contact Allison Guzman at aguzman@usdec.org.

Mexico culinary partnership kicks off this month
After a long pandemic-related delay, Mexican culinary school Colegio Superior de Gastronomía kicked off the USA Cheese Specialist Certification Program for Culinary Students this week.

USDEC signed the Memorandum of Understanding creating the partnership with Colegio Superior de Gastronomía —and trained culinary school instructors—back in February 2020, just before the global COVID-19 shut down. It is part of USDEC’s expanding cheese education program under the umbrella USA Cheese Guild Academy.

First wave
Forty-six students are enrolled for the inaugural 2021 course, which consists of 36 hours of instruction spread over three separate program levels throughout the fall semester. Students who complete all three levels earn the designation of Certified USA Cheese Specialist™. Additional students will pass through the program in subsequent semesters.

The aim: build demand for U.S. cheese by educating chefs-in-training how to use cheese in culinary applications as they learn their trade, thus creating a generation of chef advocates for U.S. cheese who will share their knowledge throughout their careers.

Mexico not alone
The Mexico partnership is the fifth culinary school collaboration. The program is already in place in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East.

Two additional partnerships are in the works with the International Culinary Institute in Hong Kong and the Tourism College of Zhejiang in China. Classes at those two schools are set to begin in October.

In-person activities return to Egypt
While the pandemic isn’t over yet, current guidelines allowed USDEC to hold a networking dinner in Cairo, marking a successful restart to in-person activities in Egypt. For the first time since the pandemic began, USDEC’s Middle East/North Africa (MENA) office met face-to-face with Egyptian trade, processors, academia and government officials. Sixty people attended from major Egyptian importers, distributors, dairy processors, cheese manufacturers, confectionery plants and bakeries, as well as university officials and representatives from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

It was not only the first time MENA office personnel had seen their regular Egyptian contacts in person in more than a year but the first time attendees had seen each other, so it created a festive atmosphere.

“Some people drove two hours or more to attend,” says Nina Halal, USDEC MENA office director. “There was a lot of excitement in the room with people sharing personal experiences and incidents of the past year-and-a-half.”

Relationship building
Both Halal and the U.S. Embassy representatives emphasized that they were there to assist in and address any inquiries, import questions or market access issues to facilitate business between attendees and U.S. suppliers. It was the kind of event that builds and strengthens relationships that are so critical to trade and that lead to improved market knowledge. Halal expects it will facilitate further conversations as the MENA office begins making site visits again in Egypt.

“We need to continue holding such trade and networking events to maintain and develop trade relations and showcase U.S. dairy’s commitment to the Middle East marketplace,” she says.

USDEC’s long-term strategy is to strengthen demand for U.S. dairy ingredients—milk powder and whey protein in particular—by cultivating a network of local dairy manufacturers, importers, professors and experts, and further fostering buyer/end-user awareness and confidence in the U.S. as a high-quality, reliable and preferred supply source. How to accomplish that goal? Deliver compelling, actionable information and solutions that encourage targeted end-users to incorporate such ingredients into their local product portfolio.

Emmi purchases Athenos feta business
Switzerland’s Emmi Group is buying the Athenos feta cheese business from Lactalis Group. Lactalis had acquired the line with its buyout of the Kraft Heinz natural cheese business, and is now selling it to align with conditions identified during the antitrust review of the Kraft Heinz deal.

Emmi called feta “an attractive growth segment,” adding that the business complements its specialty cheese offerings.

Emmi Roth USA will manage the business. Athenos products have been contract manufactured, processed and distributed for some years, and Emmi said it is keen to preserve the established relationships. (Company reports)

Saputo buys North Carolina dairy businesses
Canada’s Saputo purchased aseptic food and beverage manufacturer Carolina Aseptic and refrigerated yogurt maker Carolina Dairy. The deal includes processing plants in Troy and Biscoe, N.C. Saputo said the deal will help the company capture rising demand for aseptic protein beverages and nutritional snacks. (Company reports)

Two-year cooperative R&D project delivers new Chinese whipping cream
New Zealand’s Westland Dairy Co. and Chinese parent Yili Group plan to launch Yili Pro UHT Whipping Cream after two-years of planning and development. The companies worked together to create the product specifically for Chinese bakers, a process that included visits to each other’s production facilities and farms.

In an example of how global suppliers need to tailor operations to meet export customer needs, Westland said it had to rethink its production methods to deliver the product. A key hurdle was overcoming the inherent variability of Westland’s grass-fed milk to produce a cream with a consistency suitable for Chinese bakers but that could deliver functionally in a variety of applications, including cake decorating, mousse and milk foam. The product is set to roll out in October. (eDairy News, 8/26/21: NZX, 8/23/21)

Company news briefs
Australasian Solutions is building a new 75,000-sq.-ft. factory in Camperdown, New South Wales, to manufacture nutritional supplements, sports drinks and long-life milk for export to China and Southeast Asia . . . U.S. restaurant chain Pizza Inn plans to open its first unit in Qatar in March 2022, with four more to follow. The announcement comes after Texas-based Pizza Inn owner RAVE Restaurant Group signed a deal with master licensee Walid Haider, chairman of Azalea Investment in Dubai . . . Pennsylvania-based Duck Donuts is opening its first store in Saudi Arabia through franchisee Anjal Arabia Trading. Anjal Arabia plans to open further units throughout the country. Duck Donuts also has a store in Dubai, with another unit on tap for Egypt . . . Krispy Kreme is opening its first store Egypt in Cairo and expects to launch 10 more over the next 12 months. “When the North African opportunity came, it wasn’t that hard for us to think about the 100 million population and 20 million in Cairo,” Krispy Kreme’s CEO told Bloomberg News. (USDEC Middle East/North Africa office; Bloomberg News, 8/30/21; Farm Online, 8/28/21)

• Popular article on New York Magazine's website proclaims whole milk's "triumphant comeback'
• Harden points to global network of USDEC offices that open doors, build relationships
• U.S. dairy proteins showcased (retweet)
• Tips for consuming dairy proteins throughout the day (retweet)