We had the opportunity to catch up with U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) President and CEO, Krysta Harden, over the phone this week for a Q&A type interview to take an in-depth look at U.S. dairy as a whole, the role USDEC plays in the industry, and where things are headed in the future.
Q: What’s your role as the USDEC President and CEO?
A: “As president and CEO, you’re looking outward a lot. You’re working arm and arm with members, looking at their needs, their vision for where we can go on dairy exports. So I talk a lot to our members, I talk a lot to farmers, getting their input, what’s happening on the ground, what are the issues that are impacting them, and then with other partners within the dairy industry, as well as agriculture and beyond.
So it’s kinda the base of the organization as more the president and CEO. Anybody who has run anything will tell you the buck always stops with you and I understand that, so it all does come back to me making sure to honor our commitment, that we stay on budget, we’re accountable to our funders. But, my day-to-day is less operational as president and CEO.”
Q: What does the U.S. Dairy Export Council do?
A: “The U.S. Dairy Export Council was established by some really kinda visionary dairy farmers and partners about 25, almost 26 years ago. Looking at how do we grow markets around the world. We say a lot in our business that the world needs U.S. dairy and U.S. dairy needs the world. But how do you make that happen? Every country that we export to or interested in exporting to have different certifications, different criteria, different standards, different tariffs, different barriers. So you gotta kinda know how to get into that market. Some are easier than others.
We have teams of experts in our organization, we’re not very big, but we have the best I would say, who really know how to make sure that when a company, a co-op, an exporter is interested in any country we export to so many countries around the world, so we know what it’s going to take to do that. What are the logistics? What are the barriers? What are the opportunities and how can we make sure we form and we can meet those? We also work very closely with national milk to make sure that trade policies are supportive of U.S. dairy exports. So we are included in trade agreements and we’re not, although we do get retaliatory tariffs like we did in China a few years ago, but try to avoid that whenever possible.
We also do generic marketing, on the grounds for our ingredients, for our cheeses. We are working, making sure we are building the brand of U.S. dairy. We don’t physically export an ounce of anything, but we build that brand so those who want to export, the consumer, the customers who are already in the given country are aware of our high quality, our top value, our great products that we have. So pretty competitively, we’re out there opening the doors, doing the groundwork so a company, a co-op, anyone can go in and export a specific product.”
Q: How many countries does the U.S. export dairy to?
A: “It’s over one hundred where some presence of U.S. dairy is found. We have offices in nine and that’s mainly contractors, but they cover wide regions. We have an office in Singapore, which really covers Southeast Asia. We have folks in China, we have folks in Mexico, in Brazil, in the Middle East growing markets for us. So we cover a wide range of different countries and areas.”
Q: What are some of the easier and tougher countries to deal with right now?
A: “Mexico has been our #1 market for a very long time, it’s our neighbor to the south, they love U.S. dairy exports, logistics are easier, you don’t have to get on a ship, we can truck it in in many cases or rail it in in some. So there’s a difference to get to the border, it’s much easier. Most of the time Mexico is our largest trading partner. Although, last year during COVID we found that it wasn’t quite so simple. They were having a very difficult time with the pandemic and Southeast Asia, where we have been making investments over the last four-five years enhancing our reputation there, building a customer base, building awareness of U.S. dairy, that actually became our bigger market.
Their markets are a little bit easier depending on their political issues of the day, who’s in charge of their government so that changes. I think that leads to a point that we really do have to be diversifying our footprint around the world because there are a lot of different factors. Some are natural disasters, some are political issues, some are just logistical issues, so we can’t put all of our milk in one place or in one jug. We really have to look at the variety of different markets to make sure why they may be good and easy today, but if they have a change in government they’re a little more difficult.”
Q: Are we looking to keep on growing the dairy market? How do we make sure we have enough dairy for our country and then also for our growing export market?
A: What happens frankly is that our farmers are very, very productive, they’re extremely efficient, they get better at what they do all of the time. So our production continues to increase every year, around 2.5 to 3%, somewhere in there almost every year. So we’re producing more product. On the other hand, our population’s pretty steady and so there’s only so much growth in the U.S. that’s going to be possible just because of just sheer numbers of saturation of our existing market in the U.S. That’s what started the thinking of looking at exports is we’re productive, we have high-value products, folks want them, folks need them frankly around the world.
So we do look for exports and thinking about products, and ingredients, and cheese, and other things that people around the world can not produce enough of themselves and need to complement or augment their own markets. So it’s not an either-or, it’s about, obviously, we’re a domestic market first, we make sure that we use what we need here and certainly, there is demand for our great products in the U.S. and that’s terrific, but because we are efficient, we are growing what we produce, that means that we do have more to sell around the world. That’s where the exports come in to play…it’s not taking anything away from the U.S.”
Q: You’ve been talking to these farmers, just this past year, what are you seeing them talk about? What are they worried about? What are they looking forward to, if anything?
A: “A very immediate issue right now for many farmers is feed cost. The other is ports, the backlog of U.S. ports getting products out of the U.S. Even after we’ve sold it, we have a customer waiting on it. In Southeast Asia, that’s been a delay. So those are the two biggest issues, there are always others, but those are the two that kind of impact the farmers right now.
The recovery around the globe following the pandemic has been much, much slower, so folks have been concerned about that, what that might mean for markets, and food service, and retail, and how people get their food. Those kinds of questions were also top-of-mind for many of our producers.”
Q: What do you think we’ll be seeing for the dairy industry within the next six months or so?
A: “You know, I’m not a gambler, I’ll be honest with you. That makes me kind of nervous, so I don’t want to predict. What I will say is what I see from our dairy farmers is resilience. I see that they’re flexible and they’re nimble. They pivoted so quickly last year during the pandemic when it was at its worst in the U.S. and folks were not leaving homes, they were not going to restaurants. The demands were very different on how we got product to our U.S. customers and the world and it didn’t take very long for them to pivot, to make changes and I think that’s a part of who they are as a people.
They love what they do. They’re good at what they do and I see them being able to react and be proactive in many cases to what the world needs and that includes the U.S. consumer as well. I continue to speak very, very positive about U.S. dairy. I think we have some challenges, we have feed costs, we have labor issues, we have port demand, but farmers find a way to find answers and to meet those challenges…I’m hopeful for this year, we started out good with exports, we’ll see where that goes.”
Q: Even though specifically in Wisconsin, we’re losing a lot of farms, do you think we’ll be okay because we’re producing more milk?
A: “I’m a daughter of farmers, so I never want to see a farm family leave the farm. Sometimes it’s generational and there’s just not a generation to come back. Sometimes there are other variables that impact who’s farming and why. I want to see a lot of farmers, I love farmers. I want them on the land. Why I do what I do is to give them another market for their great products.
You know the best cheeses in the world come out of Wisconsin, at least that’s what y’all tell me. I order it all the time, so I’m testing it to make sure of that. I have it on speed dial, I promise you this, it’s just so good. I think it’s just wonderful and folks recognize and appreciate the great products. Some of this is just normal processes, but we do have an increase in production, we have an increase in cows, but I’m not an expert to figure that out.”
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say to the farmers before we go?
A: “Well, I would just say thank you for what you do. Your hard work, your commitment to producing a healthy and nutritious product that the rest of us take for granted. You do such a good job. So many families are so dependent on your expertise, your commitment, and I just say thank you for what you do. We’re going to continue to work together.
Farmers, processors, cooperatives, companies, importers, exporters, consumers, all of us need to come together to make sure that we do find ways to keep farmers on the farm to continue to do what you do best and that’s produce great products. So, just a big thank you.”
You can listen to the full interview with Harden on our Ag News on Demand podcast page.
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