Primary Markets
Primary Markets for U.S. Dairy Exports
North America is the largest market for U.S. dairy exports.
- Mexico is currently the largest export market for our products, accounting for over $936 million worth of exports in 2008, which accounted for about 25 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 2008.
The Pacific Rim is also another key target region for U.S. dairy exports. There have been consistent increases in exports to those nations over the past few years. In 2008 alone, East Asia imported more than $534 million dairy products from the U.S., which was almost a 15 percent increase over 2007. 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 $569 million in 2008, which is an increase of 47% over 2007 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 $1.3 billion of NFDM products were shipped throughout the world in 2008; that's an increase of 65% over 2007 exports. China, Mexico and Canada accounted for many of these exports.
