Primary Markets
Primary Markets for U.S. Dairy Exports
North America is currently the largest market for U.S. dairy exports.
- Mexico is currently the largest export market for our products, accounting for over $837 million worth of exports in 2010, which accounted for about 22 percent the domestic dairy exports for the entire year. Strong income and population growth should continue to maintain demand, especially for high-quality cheese and other processed dairy products like ice cream and yogurt.
- Canada is the second biggest export market for U.S. dairy exports, accounting for almost 10 percent of total dairy exports in 2010.
The Pacific Rim is one of the largest and fastest growing markets for U.S. dairy exports. There have been consistent increases in exports to those nations over the past few years. In 2010 alone, Pacific Rim nations imported more than $1.3 billion dairy products from the U.S., which was almost a double what was imported just in 2009. Even with the uncertain economic climate, demand should continue to increase in this region over the next few years.
Products in Demand
U.S. cheese exports have been growing steadily throughout the last decade, growing to $694 million in 2010, which is an increase of 61% over 2009 exports. Mexico, Canada and the Pacific Rim account for the most of those exports.
Non-fat dry milk (NFDM) has become an important new source of value-added exports for U.S. dairy foods manufacturers in recent years. Approximately $1.04 billion of NFDM products were shipped throughout the world in 2010; that's an increase of 100% over 2009 exports. Mexico, China and other Pacific Rim markets accounted for many of these exports.
