When USDEC President and CEO Tom Vilsack, speaking at last month's USDEC Board of Directors Meeting, highlighted dairy export opportunities in the Middle East/North Africa market, he drew from his visit to the region earlier this year for the Gulfood expo.

In addition to meeting with customers, taking a fact-finding expedition to area supermarkets and consulting with USDEC Middle East office staff, Vilsack sat down with Dave Snyder, Glanbia Nutritional's vice president of international sales, to get a USDEC member's take on a region that has sometimes frustrated U.S. dairy supply efforts.

VIDEO: Click arrow, lower left, below

VIDEO: Click arrow, lower left, above

Snyder, who calls Gulfood "one of the greatest food shows on the globe," made it clear: Middle East/North Africa dairy import demand will grow and U.S. suppliers have it within their capacity to secure a bigger portion of the pie.

"The per capita consumption of dairy here is much higher than it is in many other regions of the world . . . you can't ignore that," Snyder said. "It is a region that has various aspects of economic prosperities. You can't ignore that. There is a growing younger population . . . you can't ignore that.

"If you are truly a global business, you can't ignore this region," he concluded.

Sought-after market

U.S. dairy export competitors understand the appeal. It is why they are aggressively targeting the Middle East and North Africa.

"The region consumes 10 times as much cheese as is currently being consumed in Southeast Asia, even though it has half the population," Vilsack noted during his board presentation. "And it consumes twice as much cheese as Japan even though it has the same population.

"It is the gateway to a continent that over the next 10-15 years will see phenomenal population growth," Vilsack said. "In fact, one-half of all the increase in world population is going to occur in Africa."

U.S. suppliers willing to do the homework, willing to be "a student of the cultures of the region"—those willing to put aside preconceived and usually inaccurate notions about doing business in the Middle East, understand the people and build relationships—will be the ones best positioned to take advantage of that projected demand growth, said Snyder.

Margaret Speich is senior vice president of strategic and industry communications and Luke Waring is manager of communications and membership at the U.S. Dairy Export Council. 

###

The U.S. Dairy Export Council fosters collaborative industry partnerships with processors, trading companies and others to enhance global demand for U.S. dairy products and ingredients. USDEC is primarily supported by Dairy Management Inc. through the dairy farmer checkoff. The password-protected article above is intended for USDEC member organizations only and should not be shared with anyone outside your organization.