The US Dairy Export Council, the National Milk Producers Federation and Italian Assolatte signed a Memorandum of Understanding today. The agreement was created to support the development of fruitful international cooperation between the parties on crucial issues for the international dairy sector.

Among the priority objectives of the Memorandum, the protection of dairy denominations, so that terms such as milk, cheese, yoghurt, butter, etc. are reserved exclusively for products derived from milk, the real one: "We must oppose any type of misleading and deceptive labeling of products that improperly use dairy terms - underlines Paolo Zanetti , president of Assolatte - because they induce in consumers the mistaken belief of an equivalence qualitative and nutritional value between dairy products and imitations".

Initiatives are planned to enhance dairy products and promote awareness of their characteristics and benefits, involving the Authorities on nutritional policy issues

The question of sustainability is also fundamental. In this regard, with the protocol, the parties undertake to support the importance of livestock production and the contribution that companies in the sector make and continue to make to lead the supply chains towards increasingly sustainable food systems.

“This is an ambitious and far-reaching agreement that unites two giants of the global dairy industry, Italy and the United States – underlines Zanetti -. A cooperation that we hope will also serve to remove potential obstacles to the production and marketing of milk and dairy products".

"Together, we have tremendous growth opportunities, even as we know we face significant challenges," said Krysta Harden , USDEC president and chief executive officer. This agreement is an important step to give a voice to our sector: we ask for policies based on reliable scientific data, which lead to sustainable growth for milk producers and processors, all over the world".

With a production of about 103 million tons of milk and over 6 million tons of cheese, the United States is a real giant on the international dairy scene, they are the world's leading cheese producers; Italy, for its part, consistently occupies fourth place in the ranking, with 1.2 million tonnes exported outside the European borders.

“The United States is a key destination for our businesses – concludes Zanetti -. Every year we bring 35 thousand tons of made in Italy cheeses to the stars and stripes market, for a value of 420 million euros. Our cheeses are the ones most appreciated by US consumers, so much so that no other country is present on US shelves like Italy. I am sure that the collaboration will bear many fruits for both of us”.