Deal in Motion to Allow U.S. Milk to be Exported to China

(Wisconsin Ag Connection) –  Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has stated that a new deal to allow more milk producers to enter the Chinese market is in the works.

According to the Hoosier Ag Today radio network, Vilsack, who now heads the U.S. Dairy Export Council, has been working for months to change a registration process that keeps new U.S. processors from entering the Chinese market. He said the deal is a matter of weeks away and will give immediate clearance for 80 U.S. processors to begin shipping milk to China.

In 2014, China created new food safety regulations that required all foreign milk suppliers to be registered and certified by their domestic regulatory agencies before they could ship to China. For the U.S., that is the Food and Drug Administration.

The China regulations went into effect last year, and the FDA offered a voluntary registry for U.S. milk producers, but the registry has not been effective.

Through Vilsack’s work, the U.S. Dairy Export Council helped develop a new registry program that is gaining approval by U.S. and Chinese regulatory authorities.