U.S. Dairy Export Council President and CEO Tom Vilsack says the coronavirus pandemic is a gut punch for commodity prices across the board, especially for the U.S. dairy industry. At the beginning of 2020, there was momentum in dairy exports. “Our February numbers showed that dairy was exporting at a rate better than last year, but we fully anticipate because of the virus, there will be a decline going forward,” says Vilsack. “I also want to emphasize the fact that we have products. Cows don’t know there’s a virus and they’re continuing to produce milk. Farmers are continuing to work 24 hours each day, seven days a week to produce milk. There are processing plants making the ingredients, cheese, milk and other products. There’s no need for retailers to restrict the amount of milk being purchased by consumers nor is there any reason for people on the export side to believe any order they need can’t be filled by the U.S. dairy industry. We’re going to look for creative ways to get as much U.S. product to as many people around the world as possible.”
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