In April U.S. dairy exports were the highest ever recorded, accounting for 18.8 percent of production;this led to optimism about better export prices for the rest of the year.
“If we don’t export dairy products, we have to move it through the domestic market and it takes a large decline in dairy product prices to do so,” a spokesman said. “Dairy export is the key factor.”
IN May, with trade tensions already arising, U.S. dairy exports were at 15 percent of domestic production, which was the third highest month in history for exports. But by May exports to Mexico had fallen. “Exports had been on a path to a new record high in 2018,” he said.