Last night, the National Milk Producers Federation, the largest organization of U.S. dairy farmers, and the International Dairy Foods Association submitted a request for assistance to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. NMPF President and CEO Jim Mulhern offered the following statement:
“As most of the country shelters in place and large swaths of the foodservice sector come to a standstill, dairy sales outside retail channels have plummeted. Market prices have fallen rapidly, creating a crushing economic outlook for producers of nutritious, and necessary, milk and dairy products.
“While no plan can wholly remedy the losses that are occurring, dairy is responding with a united plan that can help mitigate the damage caused to it by the COVID-19 pandemic. After extensive discussions across the industry, we have developed this comprehensive action plan to address many of the key marketplace challenges created by the pandemic and are presenting it to USDA.
“We will engage in discussions with USDA in the coming days to discuss the proposal, urging the department, as we know it will, to move quickly to address the effects of the pandemic on our industry. We also understand the demands being placed on USDA at this time. Nevertheless, after five straight years of poor milk prices that were just starting to improve before the pandemic hit, USDA’s immediate actions here will be critical to help people survive the market devastation that has occurred. We look forward to working closely with USDA as we fight for dairy farmers.”
The National Milk Producers Federation, based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. NMPF’s member cooperatives produce more than two-thirds of U.S. milk, making NMPF dairy’s voice on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. For more, visit www.nmpf.org.
