Episode 10 - How Do Exports Impact U.S. Milk Markets?

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In this episode of Your Dairy Checkoff Podcast, Mississippi dairy farmer Michael Ferguson and Idaho dairy farmer John Brubaker discuss the importance of exports with Krysta Harden, CEO and President of U.S. Dairy Export Council.

In 2021, 18% of all milk produced in the United States was sold outside of the country. U.S. Dairy Export Council works to establish relationships with international consumers and builds markets for U.S. milk. 

Dairy exports have evolved to meet global demands for high-quality, high-value dairy products. The work of U.S. Dairy Export Council is driven by dairy farmers to build trust and sales across the world which impacts all dairy farmers throughout the country.

Learn more from Krysta Harden and dairy farmers who have personally been involved with U.S. Dairy Export Council’s mission to enhance demand for U.S. dairy products
 
To learn more about the national dairy checkoff and your local dairy checkoffs, please visit www.usdairy.com.

Dairy Farmer Hosts:
Farmer Host – Michael Ferguson (Mississippi)
Farmer Host – John Brubaker (Idaho)

Industry Experts:
Krysta Harden—CEO and President of U.S. Dairy Export Council

Transcript (Machine generated – please ignore the typos)

Krysta Harden 0:00
I want to make sure that farmers can stay on the farm. And just as importantly, the next generation has a place to come back to where they can make money and make a living and raise their families. So when Dec was created, maybe it was like this would be nice. Now I would say us DEC is critical to the future of this industry.

Micheal Fergerson 0:27
Hello, everyone and welcome to another episode of your Dairy Checkoff Podcast. I’m Michael Ferguson, the dairy farmer from Mississippi. And I’m joined by John Breaux Becker’s a dairy farmer from Idaho. We will be the host for today’s discussion on the US dairy Export Council. We will be discussing why exports are important and how dairy farmers support for us Dec results in outreach around the world to build trust and sales and US dairy building demand for their products, producers, large and small. Today, we’ll be talking to Chris DeHart and CEO and president of the US dairy Export Council. So let’s get started. Crystal, let me give you one of the easier questions you’re gonna get. How do you have exports impacted dairy farmers milk check?

Krysta Harden 1:14
Well, thank you, Michael, I’m so excited about what exports can mean and our meaning, frankly, already, to us dairy farmers, I think this is one of the most exciting parts of our industry. Anytime you’re building a market and you’re looking at opportunity for more than it has to be exciting. And as you build markets, no matter where they are, frankly, that comes back home to the dairy farmer, I hear that all the time from our part of the world. For those who don’t know, me, I grew up in Georgia. So that’s the southern accent that I have, I produce for a fluid market, or I hear it in other parts of the country I produce for something else, I’m not really producing for exports. But when 18% of our production goes out of the US, because we are efficient, we are productive, we’re producing a lot of good high quality product. But yet consumption here with a stable population, is what it is where we wanted to grow, that we want to hang on to what we have and make that better. But in reality, our population is not going to continue to grow at the levels we need it to. But there’s great demand for our products around the world. So that 18% In that is what we’re taking off the top. And how that translates into your mouth check is you know, think of it just the opposite. What if it stayed in the US? That might mean Michael and John, that every dairy farmer would have to cut their herds by 18%? Or we’d have to fill swimming pools are something with this extra milk 18% of it gives each dairy farmer the ability to know there’s a growing market somewhere. And that does come back home and your milk chat.

John Brubaker 3:02
Crystal This is John, the question I have a farmer might come to me who’s not really excited about check off. And I’ll say, I’m paying all this money into check all but I don’t really see the benefits in my belt check. Because exports are you said 18%. How’s that affecting my milk check, because it’s based on the world price. And that’s the lowest piece.

Krysta Harden 3:28
A lot of this is kind of it seems to me arguments that a lot of farmers go back to when we started talking about export couple of decades ago, it was really a very small part of what we were doing. It seemed to be whatever we had leftover was going into the export market. It was not have value products with it. We couldn’t compete at the world for the higher priced products. So I think a lot of folks need to really start and pay attention to what’s happening in the world market today. And looking at the demand and how it’s growing for dairy in general. What is the third largest exporter right now in the world behind New Zealand and Europe. And they are great producers. They have big markets and market share. But as the world demands more, they have nowhere to expand. They have no way to feel that demand. And that means prices are going up because demand is going up high value products like many of our cheeses are in great demand around the world. Folks want those artisanal cheeses, they want American style cheeses, they want other products that really help build into their cultural products, not just you know saying Hey, eat what we eat in the US but use these products in your cultural diets to make sure you’re getting healthy nutritional products all the time. Those are the kinds of things we’re seeing in a change in the global market. That does come back in price. So the better products we have, the more high level products have value products we’re producing, with what countries want the culture of the people around the world want not just what we given, we want to give them, that’s when you get to a commodity, low price, that’s when you’re just pushing out whatever we have leftover. But the high value products that are now in demand that our manufacturers frankly, our processors are starting to listen more and more towards consumers, and we’re producing these high value products that will make a difference in your milk check. And again, it’s just I just said a few minutes ago, John, what would happen if that 18% was still on the US market? What would that mean for us prices? Where would that milk go? Where would those products go if they were still in the US? So it’s two tier it’s, you know, continue to produce high value high quality products that are in demand. In a world where we can be competitive. That’s what’s going to make a difference in your mouth check.

John Brubaker 6:06
Thank you. That’s such an excellent answer. This is a hard question that comes up from time to time, but I really appreciate your answer for that.

Micheal Fergerson 6:15
Yeah, Krista, for the average farmer out in the country, especially in the southeast area. We’re focused on fluid meal, and we don’t have a lot of knowledge of USDA, can you kind of just give us us back? 101. What do you do? How do you facilitate this process?

Krysta Harden 6:34
I’ll give the credit, Michael back to farmers 26 years ago who came together and said, Hey, there’s a hungry world, a world who needs high value animal protein, dairy, and specifically, we’re pretty soon a lot. So let’s create this little organization that’s going to help us sell something overseas. And that was about 2% of production in those days, what 26 years later, those kind of brave and bold thinkers who could see what was happening in the world. Also, knowing that our science was improving here, I dynetics. We’re improving our rations were improving. We were just so productive, so efficient, our products got better and better. And frankly, we got more of them. Where are they going to find a home because we want dairy farmers on the farm. To me, that’s why I do this. I want to make sure that farmers can stay on the farm. And just as importantly, the next generation has a place to come back to where they can make money and make a living and raise their families. So when deck was created, maybe it was like this would be nice. Now I would say us deck is critical to the future of this industry. And what we do, it’s really unique. I think it’s one of a con in some ways and certainly in our industry. We’ve dairy farmers involved through the Checkoff Program. We have member companies, over 100 manufacturers, producers of dairy and dairy products. Some of them are cooperatives, many of them are not they’re private companies that publicly traded companies. It’s all of the above who are a part of our organization. They pay dues into our organization to help leverage those farmer dollars. And then we are retched, recognized by the US Department of Agriculture as the CO operator, which is the organization that can accept government funds through grants that we leverage even further in key markets, the work we do we have representation all over the world with folks, you know, boots and pumps and heels on the ground talking about us dairy, every single day, meeting with importers, talking to chefs, talking to consumers, talking to other governments about hey, you want good wonderful product, the US can be your source of choice. So we bring all that together. Again, leveraging the checkoff the farmer dollars or these other sources to get the work done around the world.

John Brubaker 9:05
Krista, maybe you can you know, follow up a little bit more on that. Can you tell us tell us stick is funded? That might be interesting to some people? Yeah, he’s not strictly just from BMI.

Krysta Harden 9:17
No, it’s not as a point that needs to be stressed that dairy farmers often forget that they do provide that seed money that core money for US debt, which also means that they control much of the direction of us Dec through our chair, Larry Hancock, wonderful farmer in Texas. Our Vice Chair is a farmer from Missouri. The CEO of DMI is now Bob O’Brien is our secretary treasurer. So DMI has a lot of input into the direction of our investments of our priorities. But we also have like 120 Now member companies and cooperatives but manufacturers producers, export orders, other allied industry partners that come together who are really on the front line, who are selling to customers around the world. They’re our members and they pay dues. And then we leverage those together to do have that relationship USDA on a couple of really significant export program so we can do marketing and promotion in these overseas locations. So the farmers do provide a very core foundational investment into exports. But we leverage the heck out of it with companies and others to make sure that we’re getting the most bang out of the buck for those farmer dollars.

Micheal Fergerson 10:43
Krista, how are the local kickoff organizations involved in funding USDA?

Krysta Harden 10:49
Well, clearly through their members are involved through the checkoff and those dollars come up through that shared unified marketing plan. Obviously, in that connection with DMI, we also have other state and regional organizations around the country who also go above and beyond. It’s what I like to call it who say, Hey, we’re so interested in what’s happening in exports, we’re going to go beyond what we just pay through DMR. We want to have sometimes very targeted programs for each region. Sometimes it’s just a general support of what we’re doing at US Dec. But around the country, what you’ll see is an emphasis a growing emphasis and interest on creating markets, not only maintaining those in the US, but also growing them. So it really is down to every local farm and mom book, I think about who am I members? Who are my funders, it’s every farmer, it’s not one size. It’s not just one location, it is every single one of them are making a difference. So I believe it goes right back down to each far Michel

John Brubaker 12:00
Cousteau, there’s a buzzword flying around now called sustainability. I guess my question would be, you know, us Tech was committed to sustainability. And my question is, how does that affect shipping product internationally to support those goals?

Krysta Harden 12:19
It gets bigger every day. It gives us a marketing tool, a conversation to open that, open that discussion with a potential customer, they around the world don’t really always know about us dairy, and what they do know, unfortunately, information from our competitors. So sometimes, frankly, we get a bad rap. People don’t know the commitment that this industry has made to be in an environmental solution and the investment in new technologies and research genetics, looking at your feed rations, looking at how you handle your waste and manure, your water, your footprint, all the efforts that go into your decision as a business person on a dairy. We have to tell that story. And more and more people listening to us. It’s often one or two, you know, questions that are asked right away is what about sustainability? What about your environmental footprint? We have a wonderful story, a story I’m so proud to be able to tell around the world that is helping us open markets. It is bringing people to the table to say we want to source from the US.

Micheal Fergerson 13:31
Chris, how can we feel confident that farmers across the country are benefiting from this work?

Krysta Harden 13:38
Accountability is something I’ve learned my entire life just growing up that with my parents that you have to be transparent. You have to answer questions like the tough one. You have to be available to make sure folks do understand what’s going on. But it’s that accountability through checkoff. It is that oversight that all of you provide, frankly, on the DMR Board of Directors, I get up at every meeting and talk about our numbers. I talk about our budget, I talk about what we’re doing. I talk about opportunities, challenges, and frankly, the trends that we see around the corner. So I think the you know, the DMR border, I would say is first is the way that farmers through their representatives can ask tough questions. We also go out and meet with farmers all the time. I want to listen to farmers learn from farmers, but most importantly answer your questions. Take your advice. Let me know what’s going on that you want us to hear that might help tell that story about us dairy so it’s being accountable to the funders of the checkoff.

John Brubaker 14:43
No question I would have to you Chris, is this you know how, how are you able to differentiate American dairy products from other countries? And and before you respond to that? I I want this audience to know that there have been dairy farmers on export missions that US Tech has taken. And I was fortunate enough to be on one to Southeast Asia. And so you might want to talk a little bit how we can differentiate our product, say, from a Fonterra or something like that,

Krysta Harden 15:16
you know, it’s getting easier than it has been in the past, I’ll be honest with you, because of the products that we have. Because of our environmental commitment I just talked about that’s easy to talk about to say, Hey, this is what we’re doing. We’re not just showing you a pretty picture of some cows on some grass. We’ve set these goals we’re making these investments, we’re building partnerships to do it, as story on sustainability is one of the things that certainly we can talk about and help brag on what is happening. And us dairy. We also do tech, our farmers, John, I’m glad that you were part of a trip, we just did one this fall, we went to Dubai, in the Middle East. And we have a region there, the Middle East and Northern Africa, which has great potential for us in the future. We took five farmers went and talked about their own operations, they talked about their commitment to the environment to help them wellness, nutritional products to help them be part of a global healthy diet. They had pictures of their farms, they talked about their businesses, very personable, they did social media, we met with chefs, we met with culinary students, we went to retail outlets and talk to customers in the stores, telling the story firsthand. And as soon as the world opens up more, we’ll do more of that because there are no better spokes people in the world than us dairy farmers talking about what they do. And really watching the awareness when you’re talking to someone who said oh, I didn’t know that y’all are doing that in the US. Obviously labels, you know, we have a cheese Gill, with award winning cheeses made in the US. And there’s a you know, made in the US cheese guild emblem on those products around the world. And that’s so exciting. To see that and through promotional activities and other events. We’re always pushing us first and us is that source of chores, trade shows, webinars, information, all exchanges, again, culinary schools, universities, working with customers constantly. Using your stories, yours voices to help really tell the consumer in the purchasing bodies the difference in the quality of dairy products from the US.

Micheal Fergerson 17:32
Krista, how do international customers respond to efforts to build trust and sales in American dairy products? And how are they loyal customers once we are able to get our foot in the door?

Krysta Harden 17:43
Um, it’s about trust. It’s about relationships, it’s about respect for you know, who you’re talking to giving, you know, good examples, being consistent, being constant in a market, what has not worked and where we failed a bit in the past. And my personal opinion, is we were not consistent in markets. We were there sometimes. And the next time we were not. So our customer said, Are you really serious about this market? Do you really care about our consumers and our customers? Or you just here because you know, it suits you this time? Or right now? Are you really here for the long haul. And I think what we’re showing over the last few years is we are in it for the long haul, we understand that the US is only 5% of the world population. And we’re frankly not growing. The rest of the world is in many places, and they are hungry. And they’re want a healthy diet. They want nutritional products. And we are starting to recognize that more. So it takes time to build that trust. It’s conversations, it’s having farmer conversations with some of these suppliers. In Dubai, we had a trade dinner with eight countries were represented in over 100 people. Every table had folks from all over the region talking to our farmers and our US companies who happened to be there as well. about just what you’re talking about Michael consistency, are you really going to be here and once we start to prove that loyalty is is amazing to me, folks will go through a lot with you. When they like you and they trust you. They respect you, and then know that you’re committed to them as well. Loyalty is important. And I think we stand for that in the US we stand for her value. For quality. We stand out. We we build trust and respect. We want them to trust and respect us. But you got to earn that and we recognize that

John Brubaker 19:50
Krista and to follow up a little bit on what you were just talking about several years ago we made the commitment to put a dairy center In Singapore, and I think that it’s like putting a stake in the in the ground to show that we are committed, we are here for the long haul. So maybe you want to elaborate a little bit

Krysta Harden 20:10
more on that. And I’ll give you some credit, Michael credit for being some of the great thinkers who work with when DMI and states and regions as well as us DEC to say, if we’re serious about this, we got to prove it, it cannot just be the talk, we’re going to have to make a visible commitment to a region that we believe will be critical to the growth of us dairy, and that is Southeast Asia. So the decision was made to open a bricks and mortar center, as John said, in Singapore, with a state of the art Test Kitchen with meeting rooms with facilities that US deck members can use that we can use at US deck as well as the farmers to really showcase US products, we can show how our products can be used in to cultural favorites, not just us based foods, but cultural favorites across the region are the recipes and using chefs and other demonstrations to bring folks in we can host events, we can host governments from around that region to talk about us dairy and our members love it. They’re so excited about using that facility, then they’re 16 countries in that region that are serviced by the Singapore office and we see increases all the time, during COVID. If we had not had that investment, John and Michael have, we had not decided we’re gonna diversify, and not just kind of depend on the likely trading partner of Mexico, which is our number one partner and a great friend. And I don’t want to diminish that. But they suffer greatly during COVID. And our sales to Mexico went way, way down. They went up in Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, those are many of the countries that really helped us grow during COVID, in 70 75%, of the increase production in 2020. Went to exports. So if that 75% of that growth in 2020, if we had not had a home for that much of that in Southeast Asia, and in the Middle East, we would have been in a really, really dire situation, I believe. So making that investment having that vision, looking ahead, paid off and great dividends. Since that opening of that office, I do see the results of having that presence, as you call it John stake in the ground, the visible commitment to a very, very important region for us.

Micheal Fergerson 22:53
Chris O’Hara, how we discussed a little bit on sustainability and in the position that we have globally. And the benefits to that high was the Farm Program that that we have in our country. And we started here, how does it fit into that worldwide? And and what is the thinking worldwide about about that?

Krysta Harden 23:16
You know, it’s another visionary I think moved from the industry years back when they recognize that we want to control this narrative ourselves. We want to do this ourselves. We don’t want to be further regulated. We want to make sure we are making these decisions ourselves. We’re doing good things on our farm. Can we do more? Sometimes? Yes. Do we need, you know, help doing it? Yes. But for me send the signal to the world that farmers themselves are making these decisions. They are looking at investments on their own operations. They’re looking at farming practices at decisions they can, they’re happy to go through an audit. They do this collectively, as an industry. It just shows your commitment. It’s walking the walk instead of the talk. It really is putting a fine point on our commitment to the environment to being a solution to the environmental were frankly the envy of other producing countries because we have these tools that farmers have adopted themselves are bracing themselves that are owning themselves without having to do it there’s no hammer here. They’re doing it for all the right reasons and will reap the benefit in the long run.

John Brubaker 24:34
You know, as we what do you see for the future looking forward in exports right now. EU is down at production. New Zealand’s down and Australia is down in production. Some people are saying it’s because of their sustainability push they want them to reduce the cow numbers and the CEO you mentioned. What do you see? Do you see an opportunity here for us? a lot more market share because of that.

Krysta Harden 25:02
Absolutely, John, we have really exciting years ahead, I do believe, you know, won’t be perfect, there’ll be some bumps will be some negatives, there’s no doubt about it, we have port shipping issues, which we can talk about as well. But we have the potential in the US to increase production, we have the resources, we don’t have the same restraints, as many of the countries you outline. Because we are a big country, we have dairy and every state, we have the ability to increase production, all the time that is at our will, it is not being restricted, or changed or adjusted through regulatory processes that really is at the industry’s discretion, not others. And the fact that we just have the natural resource and land, we have the ability to grow if we need to. And that diversity, I just can’t emphasize to our farmers enough, no matter where you’re, you’re listening to this podcast, you know, from whatever state, whatever town, whatever, parish, whatever county, you’re so valuable to what we’re doing, no matter how many cows you have, what the size of your production is, that is what makes us so strong. And that’s why we can compete at a global level, because we have the resources of land of people, commitment to this industry has a look at some of the headwinds that other countries are going to have. And some are self imposed, frankly, from their own governments or regulatory bodies. We don’t have that we have we’re in the driver’s seat. In my book, we can decide, as an industry and as a country, how far we want to go. We’ve

Micheal Fergerson 26:49
had, you know, an amazing amount of success, in my view, over the course of the last year or two, with the pandemic and everything else that’s been going on. But our sales have increased every month. And you’re up, we’re up to 18%. But you know, I think even another win for us is the value of those products. I can remember those days, when we just threw out there, whatever we had left over. And now we have the customers coming to us asking for high dollar products. So do you think that there’s more potential there and raising the value are raising volume?

Krysta Harden 27:34
Well, yeah, you mentioned that mica we’re increasing and both, it is no longer just a low value, commodity grade, whatever is left over industry, where we are just way beyond that we increase in volume and value. Your ever day, the numbers are just so impressive. And I think it is because of the high quality. I think it’s because our processes are committed to export. They are we have capacity that’s growing. That’s another benefit for us, as we were talking a few minutes ago about opportunity in the future. Looking at what’s coming online, those investments from companies and cooperatives with processing have value products, they’re not only looking domestically, part of their business plans happen to be global. And we’ve built that trust and that reputation of high value consistent products, as we were talking about. So I think all those things do make a difference, not just for volume, none of us are going to be satisfied just increase in volume. It’s got to include value. It’s got to be, you know, the double whammy to benefit dairy farmers across the country. So just volume would never be something we would brag on. It would always also have to include value as well. And I believe we have the opportunities there. You know, we have some headwinds. And I want to make sure folks are aware that I can paint you know, just this wonderful bossy picture because we endured COVID About as good as you could have hoped for. But we do have some lagging issues with shipping supply chain, the port’s issues what we spent a lot of time on at US Dec. Some of those issues, if we don’t resolve them and get some answers could cause us problems. That’s going to be the biggest deterrent frankly, it’s filling orders, getting orders to customers, not having orders and not having customers but getting them product.

John Brubaker 29:29
No, I know, Krista. I think it was just two days ago, you had a webinar with the Secretary Vilsack and you were and with the ports and everything. Could you fill us in a little bit? I know you work extremely hard on that because my take is it’s it’s about the relationships that we have built over the last several years. That has really helped sustain us with this headwind because it I know. I know for a fact I’ve heard there’s been orders that’s been posted. only like for 60 days at a time, but yet we still have our customers are still hanging on with us. So can you elaborate a little bit on that?

Krysta Harden 30:08
It probably is the thing that keeps me up at night pretty good sleep, I have a clear conscience. But I do wake up worried about ports. And the issues just for those who don’t focus on this, I’ll give you a little bit of background and talk about what then talk about what we’re trying to do to help eliminate or alleviate some of the pressures. One thing we did as a society is that a US society during COVID, we didn’t go out. So we ordered and we shopped online. And those goods are coming from Southeast Asia. And it has not led up there is major, major congestion at the major ports around the country, certainly the ones where we export from in the West, but Houston Savannah, New York, you name it. New Orleans, wherever there’s a major port, there has been major delays. And it’s also been cheaper because it takes so long to unload goods that a tanker can turn around and go back to China or Southeast Asia empty, empty, instead of waiting to be in here to reload whether US export product, hard for me to believe that it’s cheaper to go back empty than the way to get the the US product but that’s what’s happened. So we have been working with port authorities, with local governments with the federal government for months and months and months is probably the single one issue that I’ve had to spend most of my time on. And much of our trade policy team. It’s not funded from checkoff. But through our dues that group have been working with the administration. You mentioned Secretary Vilsack, he was part of our joint webinar this week with ag reports and the National Milk Producers foundation. John Pokhari, who was the White House invoice leads a task for some ports, attended our meeting, two members of Congress were there who’ve introduced legislation to help deal with some of these shipping problems. We had a robust conversation with those four leaders about solutions finding answers, Secretary made a great announcement of pop up storage for containers and Oakland, there’s more of that to come. We also had one of our very own CEOs, Michael darken from LA Perino on another panel, we had ahead of the truckers. On a panel, we had a lot of discussion with this group in 1200, over 1200, media outlets listening to hear what’s happening with exports. Now imports are the nightly news. So we’re trying to raise that visibility, to say, hey, look, this is an export issue. We’re an exporting country, certainly an agriculture. And we need some relief for this. And John, you made a point about a lot of our customers overseas be impatient with this kind of not sourcing from someone else waiting to see if we can get this worked out in your right that comes from knowing that we’re committed to that customer committed to filling those orders. And this has not been something that we have been able to control. So I hope that we can fix these problems, because even good customers might get a little nervous when they have empty warehouses and can’t fill their orders. So this is an issue we’ve gotten to work on. But I do think you’re right about being appreciative of the folks who’ve hung in there with us, who said we’re gonna we want to work with the US. We want to be sourced by the US we want these partnerships to work. And that’s made a big difference for us.

Micheal Fergerson 33:44
Chris, can you kind of give us a game plan or where we need to go in the next five years,

Krysta Harden 33:50
a couple of things come to mind immediately. One is not the lead up. Not to be discouraged about what’s happened in the port’s not to be thinking well, prices are okay in the US so we don’t have to export not being complacent, realizing this is for the long haul our relationships, our partnerships, having the world know what we know in the US about the high quality and have value of us dairy, don’t let up. Keep focused. Southeast Asia will continue to be a big market for us. I believe those countries have great potential. Mexico was I mentioned close neighbor, close ally close friend. We need to make sure we’re working with them. I always say we need to do more in the Americas. We’re starting to in South America and Central America. We’re starting to make greater investment and greater inroads, I think of Chile, Colombia, Peru, places that come to mind. We can even sell more to mention the Middle East, Northern Africa. They love us products, high value products. They have a lot of money in that region and they would love to be sourced by the US so I see opportunity there. haven’t mentioned Korea haven’t mentioned Japan. They’re very, very good markets for high value us product. China’s the question the geopolitical issues are always going to be a problem, or at least in the next three to five years that I can see. We’ve got we cannot put all of our hope there. But we are seeing them want, you know, more of our ESA ESL products. So they’re always trying to ship more they’re they’re looking at other things. They’re a big way market for us right now. But why don’t they buy more lactose want them buy more powder? What they’re buying cheese? Why aren’t they buying other value products? So I think we have some work to do. And China is always difficult. But in the long, long term, I think we look at Africa, there’s certainly market state in sub Sahara and in areas that I think that we can sell to in the long term, so they’re on our radar for down the road. But the places outlined first are the places we have to be consistent utilize that center for dairy, excellent incent in Singapore, making sure we are really taking advantage of every opportunity. They’re keeping Mexico and the Americas as close as possible.

John Brubaker 36:09
Excellent. This has been so interesting to do partake in this here today. Again, just from the bottom of my heart. Chris, I want to say thank you for this discussion today. You know, it’s been interesting to learn why exports are important and the work that US tech is doing to provide value to the dairy farmers across the country. In closing, this is Mike and John hosting your Dairy Checkoff podcast. And we want to say thanks for joining us today. And if you want to hear more about various issues affecting the dairy industry, stay tuned.

Krysta Harden 36:47
Thank you very much appreciated being with you and thank all the dairy farmers for giving us just these great products that are so fun to go out there and teach the world about and let them have a taste of what we already know in the US