UK dairy in the shop window to the world

International trade is about people – connecting with them and establishing relationships to help exports flourish. After all, there’s no point having world-class produce if you’re not shouting about it. That's why, last week, we took part in the Department for Business and Industry (DBT)-led dairy showcase.

The week-long showcase saw us hosting international buyers from over 40 countries, showing them the very best of the UK dairy sector.

We were delighted to run tours to dairy farms and processors in Somerset, Gloucestershire, Shropshire and Lancashire, giving our visitors the amazing farm-to-fork story of British dairy produce.

Culminating on Thursday 26 September, with a DBT-led Meet the Buyer event and gala reception in Hertfordshire, our visitors were able to meet with over 60 UK dairy export businesses and make those all-important connections with the aim of delivering tangible results in long-term trade.

The dairy showcase was developed in consultation with the Dairy Export Taskforce and industry as part of a programme which helps to progress the export capability of UK businesses and champions high-quality UK dairy products on the global stage.

The task force represents industry and is supported by industry bodies such as AHDB, NFU, Dairy UK and the Government departments DBT and Defra.

So, why all this effort? The numbers speak for themselves. UK dairy exports in 2023 were worth £1.8bn – an incredible figure and undoubtedly a strong platform on which our industry can build further global growth.

And judging by the positive feedback we’ve received, the future is looking bright. Several visitors described it as a real eye-opener, learning more about our world-class produce at source – the high production standards, the heritage and, ultimately, the taste.

As I’ve alluded to before, international trade development remains one of the key areas of our work, reflecting the priorities of our dairy levy payers. Our job is to support export growth and to help our exporters thrive in markets around the world, and last week’s showcase has been a further illustration of that in practice.

The showcase was a fantastic complement to our wider international trade development work in what has been a busy year, including the coordination of trade missions and participation in trade shows with our exporters.

This work has taken us from the USA to the Middle East to Asia and will continue next month with us supporting export business at SIAL in Paris – the world’s leading trade show. We’ll be following that up with our participation at FHC in Shanghai in November.

As I’ve already said, trade is about people and making connections. It's been a pleasure helping to coordinate this week’s showcase with DBT, but we couldn’t do it without an amazing industry delivering quality produce. With this in mind, a big shout-out must go to the UK businesses who took part and helped us make the week such a success.

International trade development will continue to be one of our key strategic objectives, and we will continue to work with industry and government through 2024 and into 2025 to help ensure consumers across the world continue to enjoy our world-class dairy produce and that our sector continues to thrive.