Saputo Cheese USA Inc.

Saputo Cheese USA Inc., a for-profit manufacturer of dairy products headquartered in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, supplies mozzarella cheese commodities to the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a prime contractor on indefinite delivery contracts and delivery orders under the Commodities for USG Food Donations program. The vendor competes on a full-and-open basis with no set-aside designations across its federal portfolio.

Saputo's federal footprint is narrowly concentrated in USDA food assistance procurement. The Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service accounts for 547 of 561 total awards (99% of recent activity), representing $936.4 million in combined potential value. The Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service Washington Office holds 7 awards worth $52.7 million, primarily for cooperative agreements under the Pandemic Market Volatility Assistance Program (PMVAP, CFDA 10.183), through which Saputo distributed pandemic relief payments and dairy policy education to eligible farmers in Illinois and other states. The remaining four awards consist of one Agricultural Marketing Service award and one Dairy Program award with minimal dollar exposure. This concentration—matching across both award-count and potential-value rankings—reflects a single-customer dependency on USDA's commodity food procurement.

Capability scope is highly specialized: Saputo delivers low-moisture part-skim mozzarella cheese in multiple packaging formats—frozen 8/6-pound loaves, 30-pound shredded frozen boxes, and unfrozen processed bulk packages—to support the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and National School Lunch Program. Representative delivery orders include a $1.52 million fixed-price delivery order awarded June 21, 2024 for frozen loaves and unfrozen processed mozzarella from Newman, California; a $2.04 million delivery order from August 13, 2024 covering shredded and unfrozen varieties from Tulare, California; and a $2.63 million delivery order from the same date for multiple packaging configurations. All awards carry fixed-price or fixed-price-with-economic-price-adjustment structures. Saputo operates as prime contractor directly without subcontractors, maintaining end-to-end control over production and delivery from facilities in Newman and Tulare, California; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and a Prairie View, Illinois location.

Parent vehicle position centers on five active indefinite delivery contracts issued by USDA FNS. The largest by potential value is IDC 123J1421D0071 ($120.9 million ceiling, through December 2023), against which Saputo held 41 active delivery orders worth $50.4 million in combined potential. IDC 123J1420D0063 ($39.4 million ceiling, through December 2024) supported 39 task orders valued at $28.2 million. IDC 123J1419D0001 ($63.9 million ceiling, through December 2022) generated 39 orders worth $17.4 million. IDC 123J1418C0001 ($15.4 million ceiling, through June 2024) carried 38 orders at $7.1 million combined value. AGDPROC120001 ($7.2 million ceiling, through December 2026) supported 48 orders totaling $29.6 million. Together, these five vehicles represent the bulk of Saputo's active order flow.

Award trajectory shows contraction over the past five years: 44 awards in 2022, declining to 8 awards in 2026 year-to-date. Four awards with ultimate completion dates inside the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $1.8 million, signaling minimal recompete exposure in the near term but reflecting overall declining activity. Combined obligated dollars across all awards reach $441 million (45% of combined potential value of $989.1 million), indicating invoiced revenue at roughly mid-cycle across the portfolio.

Saputo's federal grant footprint is limited to two PMVAP cooperative agreements as a sub-recipient under USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. The December 7, 2021 award valued $574,117 for distributing pandemic relief payments to eligible dairy farmers in Illinois through June 30, 2022. The April 19, 2023 award of $177,192.09 extended the program through December 31, 2024, with Saputo disbursing PMVAP payments, obtaining income attestations, issuing 1099-MISC forms, and providing dairy policy education to eligible dairy farmers. Both awards reflect Saputo's secondary role as a payment distributor rather than primary grant recipient.

Federal procurement for Saputo is commodity-focused, non-competitive by business designation, and increasingly concentrated in legacy indefinite delivery vehicle execution. The vendor holds no active seats on government-wide acquisition vehicles, federal schedules, or agency-wide BPAs outside the USDA FNS food donation IDC portfolio. Competitive positioning is driven by manufacturing capacity, product certification, and ability to supply multiple packaging configurations from geographically dispersed U.S. facilities to meet USDA's food assistance demand.