NMPF Supports Indonesia School Milk Pledge as Market Share Grows

Jul 09, 2024

NMPF Executive Vice President of Trade Policy and Global Affairs Shawna Morris joined U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) staff in Indonesia from June 18-21 to advance the U.S.-Indonesia Technical Collaboration Project on Dairy and encourage steps to increase dairy trade in what is becoming an increasingly important market.

The trip took place as the country prepares to fulfill a new pledge from incoming president Prabowo Subianto to provide free milk to Indonesian schoolchildren as part of a new school meals program Indonesia plans to launch. Indonesia, meanwhile, is a rising consumer of U.S. dairy, with exports rising 28 percent over the past five years to becoming the second biggest customer in the Southeast Asia region.

A joint effort to provide forward-looking technical and educational support for local dairy producers, the U.S.-Indonesia Technical Collaboration Project on Dairy was spurred by a 2023 National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) trade mission to Indonesia which USDEC President and CEO Krysta Harden joined.

NMPF and USDEC are working with NASDA, the Wisconsin Agriculture Department, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, and New Mexico State University to develop technical education modules that provide to Indonesian small-scale dairy farmers guidance and best practices for achieving sustainable, healthy, and higher-yield dairy production.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.