DA draws up 10-yr roadmap for dairy

MANILA, Philippines -  The Department of Agriculture (DA) plans to craft a 10-year masterplan for the local dairy industry to lessen the country’s importation of milk and dairy products.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol said the DA would hold a consultative forum with industry stakeholders to formulate the 10-year Philippine Dairy Industry Development Roadmap.

“The local industry could hardly supply five percent of the milk and dairy requirements of the country, 95 percent of the milk and dairy products consumed by Filipinos is imported. Until today, no such industry blueprint has been designed, formulated and implemented,” Pinol said.

The Agri chief added that the local dairy program has been marked by corruption-tainted transactions in the past including overpriced dairy animals and genetically inferior animals brought into the country.

“I am urging our farmers to organize and consolidate their efforts so that government could easily support them. We will also provide municipal multiplier farms and learning centers nationwide and financial assistance for feed mills,” he said.

The agency is also eyeing the establishment of a national registry program to establish the genetic lineage of all dairy animals, including cattle, goats and carabaos.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that dairy production  went up four percent to 21,160 metric tons in 2016.

In terms of value, dairy registered the highest increase under the livestock sector at 10 percent to P715 million.

According to the PSA, the intervention of the National Dairy Authority and Philippine Carabao Center for cattle, carabao and goat milk production coupled with higher demand for both cow’s and carabao’s milk resulted into higher milk production and better pricing.

Despite this, the industry still could not supply the local requirement as the country imported 453,000 MT of dairy valued at $808 million in 2016.

Most of the imports were from New Zealand with 39 percent of the total and US (24 percent).  Other sources were Australia and Germany.