of IDFAMichael Dykes will replace Connie Tipton as president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association in January 2017.

The U.S. dairy industry has a growth focus and the opportunity to be the world’s dominant supplier of dairy products.

That’s the message Michael Dykes, president and CEO of International Dairy Foods Association, delivered at Dairy Forum 2024.

Accomplishing those goals will demand several efforts. One is to reignite the industry’s competitive fire through exports, he said.

The world is demanding more U.S. dairy, and the industry needs to go out and take that market, he said during a livestream presentation.

“We can match our surging investments and the surging demand so we’re ready to get the products consumers are demanding where they want them,” he said.

Globally competitive

U.S. dairy needs to explore export opportunities and be united on pricing and policies to become globally competitive and meet customers’ needs and requirements, he said.

USDA is projecting the U.S. will produce an additional 20 billion pounds of milk annually by 2030.

“We’ll need a game plan for that. We’ll need to build globally competitive markets. We’ll need to defend against the unfair trade barriers. We’ll need to expand our existing (trade) agreements and work on new agreements,” he said.

The industry will also have to form new alliances with trucking, rail and ports to move product and think about new tools and new policies, he said.

Butting heads

But the administration and Congress are too busy fighting with each other and aren’t focused on helping.

“When they’re fighting, we’re not going to be winning,” he said.

When dairy is not winning, not doing the things we need to do, it puts capital investment, jobs, growth and national influence at risk, he said.

“Food security’s global security. We need to be at the table. We have a role to play. We have great things we can do,” he said.

Dairy exports have grown tremendously over the past 20 years, but might have grown more with new trade agreements, he said.

“We (the U.S.) don’t have a focus on trade and advancing ourselves in trade … this past year we imported more food and agriculture than we exported, first time in history,” he said.

Unresolved issues

Dairy is exporting far more than it’s importing. But there are some unresolved trade issues, including the dairy tariff rate quota issue with Canada.

In addition, the Biden administration is focused on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which offers no additional market access and has no method to address facility registration. And no one in Congress is talking about Trade Promotion Authority.

But there’s not a hotter topic in Congress than policy on China, he said.

“What do we do with China? How do we delink from China? We can’t afford to delink from China from a dairy perspective. It is our No. 3 market. We need to stay connected,” he said.

While there’s a lack of focus on trade, dairy needs to diversify markets, he said.

Today, one-third of the global population lives in Africa and India. India will surpass China in population by 2100 and six of the 10 fastest growing economies will be in Africa, he said.

“We need to be where the people are,” he said.