EDITORIAL — Dairy development

Apart from rice, the country’s staple, there’s a food item that needs a production boost: milk. The highly nutritious food is needed especially during childhood to promote physical and mental development. Malnourishment and undernourishment lead to stunting – a persistent problem in this country where millions live below the poverty line. Stunting retards learning, which impacts all other aspects of human development well into adulthood.

Milk, particularly baby formula, however, is a luxury for impoverished families. Desperate parents have resorted to shoplifting, prompting many retailers to place baby formula on locked shelves or behind point-of-sale counters to deter thievery. Even locally produced fortified milk, formulated for the different stages of child growth, is heavily dependent on imported milk ingredients. A supplemental feeding program is being implemented in the early stages of basic education in public schools, but the fortified milk in tetra pack remains inadequate for proper child nutrition.

The country is producing only one percent of its milk requirements, despite efforts to boost the domestic dairy industry for the past half-decade. Recently, the National Dairy Administration reported that milk imports dipped slightly in 2023, to 98 percent of the country’s needs from 99 percent, as domestic production inched up.

This was contradicted by the head of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. and the Dairy Confederation of the Philippines, which reported that total domestic milk production remained below one percent. Industry players are urging the government to implement Republic Act 7884, the Dairy Development Act. Among other things, RA 7884 requires multinational companies to source their milk requirements from domestic producers.

Local milk production, however, may not be able to meet the companies’ requirements. If this is the case, the dairy producers’ groups want the companies to set up dairy farms in the Philippines. The government has a modest target of producing locally five percent of the national milk requirement by 2028. Part of the program is setting up at least one “dairy zone” in every island region.

This will require a significant increase in funding for programs in dairy development. The government can seek financial and technical assistance from milk-producing countries, starting with the world’s biggest milk exporter, New Zealand, where over a thousand Filipinos are now employed in the dairy industry. Considering the importance of milk in child development and overall nutrition, apart from the many other uses of milk in the food industry, domestic dairy production needs greater attention from the government.