SEATTLE – Farmer-owned dairy cooperative Darigold, Inc., announced that it joined the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) platform, which offers a suite for trading dairy products online.

Through a GDT trading event, Darigold shared that it offered two skim milk powder products and one buttermilk powder product when it made its debut on the platform on July 4.

Per the Seattle-based marketing and processing subsidiary of the Northwest Dairy Association (NDA), working with GDT expands Darigold’s reach to new markets and customers as the cooperative makes a strategic transformation.

"The Darigold brand is beloved in the Northwest, where our farmer-owners are raising cows and our teams have been producing high-quality dairy products for more than 100 years," said Joe Coote, chief executive officer at Darigold. "But the growth opportunities in dairy are more robust in global markets and our co-op is uniquely positioned to leverage this opportunity. While we're already a top-tier dairy producer in the United States, there's an opportunity for us to transform Darigold into a global leader in the category as well. That's one of the ways we are continuing to build value for our farmer-owners, our co-op and our customers."

Eric Hansen, GDT’s CEO, said the trading company’s three-year strategic plan includes focusing on improving the global supply of dairy products.

“In line with this, we are actively looking to attract new sellers from all global milk pools to offer our bidders more choice and enable GDT to publish credible reference prices for more products and across more regions,” Hansen said. “US exporters play a significant role in our model, and we are thrilled to have a top-tier producer like Darigold join GDT."

Darigold shared that it processes close to 10 billion pounds of milk each year. Via its own brand and private label partnerships, the cooperative produces and sells such products as fluid milk, butter, cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese in the Northwest, where it has 300 member farms and 11 production facilities.

Its goal to become a global leader involves its proximity to shipping infrastructure that makes for efficient exporting. In September 2022, Darigold broke ground on a $600 million production facility in Pasco, Wash., to expand production capacity. Once it is operational, the plant will allow Darigold to process an additional 8 million pounds of milk per day.

Per the cooperative, during the last fiscal year, ending March 31, 2023, it produced more than 450 million pounds of milk powders, and a growing share of that was for international customers. Darigold also said it exports butter, cheese and fluid milk products to approximately 30 countries.