When 320 dairy farmers came together in St. Paul, Minn., back in 1921 to form the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association, they likely didn’t have big dreams of becoming a cooperative powerhouse. They simply wanted to market their milk effectively.
Over the past few years, freezer cases have been filling up with a new class of creamy, dreamy treats that bear all the hallmarks of sinful indulgence while delivering more pluses (think protein and fiber) and fewer minuses (added sugar or "artificial" anything), to boot.
Exports are a demand-pull phenomenon, and demand has been good. U.S. milk equivalent exports from January to July were record high, up 19.5% from 2017.