‘Room for huge improvement in dairy sector’

[LahoreEstate]

* US milk production with 3.4 million milk animals is 28.35 litres/animal per day
* Pakistan with 5 million milk animals is 3.15 litres/animal per day

By Razi Syed

KARACHI: There is huge room for improvement in Pakistan’s dairy sector with its ever-widening demand and supply gap of milk expected to increase to 3.6 billion litres by 2015, an official of Livestock and Dairy Development Board (LDDB) said on Monday.

“The annual production of fresh milk in the country is around 33 billion litres, out of which only 5 percent production goes through Tetra Pak process”, Chief Executive Officer LDDB Dr Muhammad Afzal said.

He said livestock contributes 12 percent to Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) as compared to 8 percent in India. Approximately, 35 million people are involved directly or indirectly with livestock and the total value of milk produced is higher than our two major crops, wheat and cotton.

Managing Director of Tetra Pak Pakistan, Azhar Ali Syed said consumer demand for safe processed and packed milk remains high but the dairy processing industry is finding it difficult to collect good quality milk at a reasonable cost since there are over 14 million dairy farms with an average herd (cows, goats and buffalos) size of three heads.

He said inadequate chilling facilities, increased energy costs, inefficient processing, costly packing and distribution are the main impediments to growth of the industry.

He said with the reduction or even elimination of subsidies to agriculture sector by the West, the prices of milk products in the world are expected to rise and Pakistan should make best use of the changed environment. However, for carving out a share in the world market in the milk-based industry, he said Pakistan should have to follow an integrated approach from the improvements in the productivity per animal up to the domestic and final consumers.

Comparing USA with Pakistan in milk production, Pakistan has 5 million milk animals while US is having only 3.4 million milk animals, he added. But in contrast USA produces 94.5 billion litres milk annually while Pakistan produces 33 billion litres a year. Per animal yield of milk in USA is 28.35 litres while in Pakistan it is 3.15 litres per milking animal. He said dairy sector in Pakistan could benefit from an influx of investment. Dairy farming practices and infrastructure were largely primitive and backward, leading to production inefficiencies resulting in lack of good quality milk available to processors. There was need of influx of financial, technical and skilled human capital in all areas of the milk supply chain, especially in mega dairy farms. Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producing country in the world and under the dairy industry’s vision of the country is to position itself as one of the 5th most competitive dairy industries in the world over the next 10-15 years. To achieve this objective, he outlined the main focus should be on the quality controls, standardisation of products, credible certification, promotion of milk chilling at the village level.

He emphasised the milk producers at village level be organised, the payments on the basis of quality of milk be introduced and subsidy may be provided to the export of milk in the short-term but may gradually be withdrawn over medium to long-term and protection may be provided against unfair trade practices. According to official sources the dairy sector represents 10.9 percent per capita dairy calories intake. Tetra Pak in collaboration with DeLaval and the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) has launched a 16-week training programme for the dairy hub staff.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg5_7