Amy Wagner of Dairy Management Inc (DMI) was explaining how the organization has been working with the U.S. foodservice industry for about the past decade and has since begun expanding to worldwide opportunities.
“About one out of every six tankers goes abroad. So, it’s really important that we build our export business. And so, we said, look, we got a successful domestic strategy when we work with partners, so let’s try to do that abroad,” says Wagner. “So, beginning in 2017 we started working with the Yum Company, which basically owns Pizza Hut and KFC abroad, and so we began the partnership there and, more recently we’ve become working with Domino’s in Japan and most recently, in the Middle East.”
Wanger mentioned the fact that there’s a huge opportunity for exports to grow in the Middle East. For example, DMI recently teamed up with Alamar Foods Company, owners of 455 Domino’s stores in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan. They’re focusing on about 300 locations in Saudi Arabia to increase cheese exports from the United States.
“It’s a good export region for the U.S. and it’s also one where there’s tremendous growth opportunity because, while folks there like cheese, per capita consumption there is about, in Saudi in particular, is about 13 pounds a year. The United States, we eat about 37 pounds of cheese a year, so there’s tons of growth upside,” Wagner went on to say, “the same thing with pizza, they love pizza, you’ll find Domino’s and Pizza Hut if you travel there but they don’t eat it quite as frequently as Americans do. And so, we see a tremendous opportunity to drive pizza and most importantly, to increase U.S. cheese used on that pizza.”
She explained that Asia is another great export market with the potential to keep growing, so DMI’s working with Domino’s in that area as well. “The Japanese view pizza as a specialty food for special occasions, but pizza is growing in importance to them. And so, what we want to do with the partnership is work with Domino’s, drive more consumer demand, and Domino’s in Japan uses 100% U.S. sourced mozzarella and string cheese. So, what grows their pizza, grows U.S. cheese as well.”
