11/07/06 Dairy promotion pays off

More than one-thousand dairy producers gathered in Las Vegas for the annual meeting of their dairy promotion boards. One of the key areas of focus at last week's meeting was the Dairy Checkoff's new business strategy. That strategy focuses on "unmet" consumer demand, the gap between current and potential sales. Tom Gallagher, CEO of Dairy Management Inc, which manages the national Dairy Checkoff, says the shift in focus is bringing results with Burger King and Sonic. They're the latest restaurant chains to begin offering white and chocolate milk in round re-sealable plastic bottles. Now new, more appealing milk is available in more than 35-thousand restaurants nationwide. GALLAGHER - "Couple that with the fact that we've helped six-thousand schools convert from paper containers of milk to plastic containers and we seen an economic growth in consumption. Over 300-million pounds of incremental consumption and over one billion packages sold in round, re-sealable plastic form." Gallagher says producers at the Las Vegas meeting were proud of what the shift in strategy has meant in sales. More than eight billion pounds of additional "unmet" opportunities for milk and dairy products have been identified. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott