Contact: Marti Pupillo
202-220-3535
mpupillo@idfa.org

(Washington, D.C. – July 17, 2013) The International Dairy Foods Association has named Beth Hughes to the position of director of international affairs. In this role, Hughes will support IDFA's efforts on international trade and import and export issues. She'll also oversee the association's sweetener and trade committees.          

Hughes comes to IDFA from the USA Rice Federation, where she spent five years developing and implementing international trade policy and promotion activities to support the U.S. rice industry and to help small- and medium-sized U.S. enterprises in overseas export markets. She also analyzed domestic and international rice trends and prepared comments relating to non-tariff and technical barriers, such as sanitary and phytosanitary barriers.

Before that, Hughes was a research analyst for the American Society of Travel Agents, where she created and managed a series of surveys each year, analyzed the data to identify trends and benchmarks, and drafted reports on the results. She also provided consulting services to members and maintained updates to the association’s website.

"We're very pleased to have Beth join the IDFA team, especially at a time when the United States is negotiating historic trade agreements that will affect major export markets for dairy," said Clay Hough, IDFA senior group vice president and general counsel. "Global trade is a key growth area for the U.S. dairy industry overall, and IDFA will continue to focus attention on international issues that will help to open foreign markets for our dairy products."

Hughes earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at George Washington University and received a Master of Arts in international affairs from Florida State University. She lives with her husband, Chris, in Arlington, Va.  

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The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, DC, represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies representing a $125-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's 220 dairy processing members run nearly 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85% of the milk, cultured products, cheese and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States.