Dairy industry cannot keep with demand

Despite the increase in herd and production, the dairy industry in the Visayas and the whole Philippines as a whole is not enough to meet the public consumption.

In the weekly Association of Government Information Officers-7 (Agio) Forum held recently, National Dairy Administration Visayas information officer Farina Dy reported that the dairy sector in the Visayas area posted an increase of 30 to 35 percent, in terms of dairy herd and milk production.

Last year's herd inventory of 12,874 grew by 31 percent from the 2006 figure of 16,845 herds.

Dy in presenting NDA's scorecard for the last six years reported that there were only 5,868 in 2001, and increased 2.8 times more in 2006.

NDA distributed new batch of dairy animals realizing the need to augment the present stocks due to the growing demands for milk and milk products.

Dy said there were 615 heads of pregnant Holstein Friesian x Sahiwal and two heads of Holstein Friesian x Sahiwal bulls were imported from News Zealand.

In terms of milk production, Dy said the figure in 2001 doubled from 3.9 million liters to 8.52 million liters in 2006.

The 8.52 million liters represent 66 percent of the national production.

Average milk production was recorded at 23,000 liters daily from just 11,000 liters in 2001.

However, Dy said that in terms of statistics the local dairy industry still supplies one out of four glasses of milk consumed by every Filipino daily, which spells investment opportunities for businessmen to go into the dairy sector.

Or of the 100 percent milk supplied to Filipinos, four percent were produced and supplied by locals, both private and NDA assisted producers.

She said there is not much increase in milk production to serve and equalize the increase of the population.

Currently the entire Visayas has 2,888 herds and 1,117 are in Central Visayas, producing 1,892 liters of milk daily.

NDA however is bent on strengthening the potentials of dairy cooperatives by providing technical support and financial loan conduits.

Last year Dy said they had inaugurated the first ever Milk Sterilizing Retort Facility of the Cebu Federation of Dairy Cooperatives in Consolacion.

This facility can make sure that milk production can reach even the far flung regions in the county.

The sterilized milk blend produced by CEFEDCO Milk Sterilizing Retort Facility is producing 7,200 pouches daily to supply milk feeding program beneficiaries in Leyte.

Another project realized is the Forage Seed Production Project in Ubay, Bohol for massive seed production and distribution. - Ferliza C. Contratista