Vilsack U.S. Dairy Farmers Have A Lot Of Potential

Ask Tom Vilsack, President and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Federation, and he’ll tell you that the U.S. has an opportunity to increase already record high U.S. dairy exports, by expanding into the Middle East market.

“The Middle East is a place where there are very few barriers, very few trade barriers and very few sanitary and phytosanitary barriers, that you would find in other countries.  That’s number one.  Number two, you’re dealing with a very wealthy community, I’ll give you one example, the United Arab Emirates, 85% of the people that live in those Emirates are not from those emirates, so when you go into a grocery store in Dubai, you’re going to see a broad range of international food choices.”

Vilsack noted that many Middle Eastern customers are relatively wealthy, which means they will look to spend on quality products.  The former Ag Secretary said it’s important that American producers use good marketing tactics.

“You’ll see it from Ireland, you’ll see it from the Netherlands, but you wont necessarily know you’re getting it from the U.S.  So, it’s going to be important for us to market U.S. specifically.  It’s also important for us to tell the story of sustainability, you know the Wisconsin farmers are doing a great job on the environment, great job on animal welfare, great job with greenhouse gas reductions, we need to tell that story more forcefully.”

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