Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) recently entered a partnership with Alamar Foods Company, which owns over 400 Domino’s stores in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan area. The partnership will focus on about 300 locations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to increase U.S. cheese sales.
Amy Wagner, DMI Executive Vice President of Global Innovation Partnerships, said the checkoff will help Alamar with technical expertise on menu creation and marketing. “This is an extension of an already strong Domino’s partnership and a tremendous opportunity because pizza is a lesser developed category in the Middle East,” Wagner said. “As we looked to increase dairy sales internationally, we knew American cuisine is very popular there and pizza is loved. We see an upside to grow even more pizza sales that will use U.S. cheese…”
This is DMI’s first venture into the Middle East with a partner, but it’s not the first time they worked internationally. For example, in 2019 DMI started a partnership with Domino’s Japan. “These partnerships illustrate the importance of export growth to U.S. dairy and how our work supports the U.S. Dairy Export Council’s efforts to diversify growth into new regions of the world,” said Pennsylvania Dairy Farmer Marilyn Hershey, who serves as chair of DMI.
Domino’s is the #1 pizza company worldwide. Wagner also emphasizes that about 96% of the global population lives outside of the U.S., so there’s plenty of opportunities to expand the country’s dairy industry outside of the United States. “We have aspirations to have an even larger partnership presence throughout the Middle East and Africa where populations are increasing,” Wagner said. “We’re beginning with two very strong markets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.”
