Move to strengthen trading capability comes as part of co-op’s transition to central portfolio management strategy.

SEATTLE, WA. – December 19, 2022 – As part of a broader effort to establish a centralized portfolio management system to better serve its global customers and build additional value for its farmer-owners, Darigold, the 104-year-old Seattle-based dairy co-op, has launched Darigold Exchange^TM. The new digital trading platform allows Darigold to solicit bids for product tenders in an open and transparent marketplace where buyers can see products on offer and the prices others are willing to pay, allowing them to make informed decisions on whether to bid themselves.

Darigold Exchange is the latest in a series of decisions from one of the nation’s largest dairy producers as it looks to align around centralized portfolio management, where its sales teams around the world represent its full line of dairy products, rather than relying on specialized teams offering access to only parts of its full product portfolio.

“Our business is fundamentally about finding or creating sustainable markets for the milk our hardworking farmer-owners produce, providing the high-quality dairy products our customers have come to expect from us, and getting the most value we can from the milk our farmers provide,” said Mark Armon, head of Darigold’s Class III and IV portfolios, which include such products as butter, cheese, and powdered milk products. “This platform will make us more efficient in each of those areas, allowing customers – either new or potential – to engage with us more easily, providing a platform to sell products efficiently and at transparent prices, and providing real-time analytics into the value of various products we put on the Exchange.”

Darigold believes its focus on centralized portfolio management will enhance customer service by giving its customers access to its complete product portfolio through a single relationship and allow the co-op to build additional value for its farmer-owners by giving its teams greater visibility into the needs of its customers and the opportunity to meet those needs efficiently.

Darigold Exchange is powered by Nui Markets, the New Zealand-based company whose trading platform is revolutionizing the way agricultural products are traded.

“Innovative food and agriculture companies like Darigold see the potential in leveraging our platform to expand their business,” said Kevin O’Sullivan, chief executive officer at Nui Markets. “As one of the first U.S. producers to adopt the platform, they have taken an important step to meeting customers around the globe where they are increasingly looking to buy the products and commodities they need.”

Darigold’s initial offerings using Darigold Exchange have been off-specification products, allowing the co-op to find buyers quickly and efficiently for products that do not meet the technical specifications of existing client contracts, but the co-op envisions a time where many of its top-tier products will also be available using the Exchange.

Darigold’s move to embrace a central portfolio management strategy comes as the company is looking to grow its business, domestically and globally. The co-op recently broke ground on a $600 million production facility to expand butter and powdered milk products, and expects to process an additional 8 million pounds of milk per day when the new facility begins operations in 2024.

About Darigold

Headquartered in Seattle, Darigold, Inc. is the marketing and processing subsidiary of Northwest Dairy Association (NDA), which is owned by more than 300 family-owned dairy farms in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Darigold handles approximately 10 billion pounds of milk annually. Darigold produces a full line of dairy-based products for retail, foodservice, commodity, and specialty markets, and is one of the largest U.S. dairy processors. Darigold, Inc. operates 11 plants throughout the Northwest, processing high-quality milk produced by NDA farm families, and satellite offices in Mexico City, Mexico and Shanghai, China. For more information, visit darigold.com.

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Contact: Chris Arnold
Chris.Arnold@darigold.com
206-273-8408