September 26, 2008
The National Dairy Authority (NDA) plans to boost its animal procurement programme in order to increase the domestic dairy sector's production amid the Chinese milk scandal.
Sources from the agency said PHP 450 million (US$9.6 million) is required to fund the programme, which would help to increase the sector's milk output.
The five-year programme will allow the agency to import 5,000 dairy cows or 1,000 cows annually, and will enable the Philippines to become "partly sufficient in liquid milk production by 2018".
Agency officials expect the assistance to be sourced from the monetised PL 480 commodity loan in 2006.
PL 480 is Public Law 480 of the US, or Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act. It was enacted in 1954 in line with the US policy of using its agricultural productivity to enhance food security of developing countries and the determination of the importing country's capacity of improving its food security.
The NDA expects this year's total milk output to reach 13.83 million litres, a slight increase from 13.23 million litres in 2007. Out of this year's production, NDA accounted for about 10.04 million litres, up 3.89 percent on-year.
The Philippines imports about 1.2 billion litres of liquid milk annually. The domestic dairy industry has about 30,000 heads of dairy herd, with only half of it capable of producing milk.
NDA said the dairy sector has to increase milk output in order to supply the required average daily volume of local milk processors, which stands at 5,000-10,000 litres per company.