October 6, 2010
 

Improved genetics boost Egypt's feed grain sales

Improved genetics and the expansion of commercial production in Egypt have opened and continue to expand opportunities for increasing the use of feed grains and co-products to obtain maximum productivity.

The successful continued expansion of the dairy buffalo sector depends on the further development of capacity through the establishment of milk collection centres, followed immediately by the establishment of commercial operations.

Only a few months ago, "there were no dairy processing companies producing buffalo's milk for drinking. Commercial dairy processors are now processing buffalo's milk and producing pasteurised or UHT buffalo milk and marketing it in the supermarkets. This only happened in the past two months," said Dr Hussein Soliman, USGC director in Egypt.

According to Dr Soliman, there are two major dairy processing plants producing pasteurised buffalo's milk and UHT buffalo's milk in Egypt. UHT (ultra high temperature) is a commercial sterilisation process that, in addition to sharply decreasing spoors in milk, also extends its shelf life by six to nine months, according to various estimates.

The Council has been successful in its effort to encourage "dairy processors now to produce value-added products from buffalo's milk and [it] will continue supporting the Egyptian Dairy Herd Improvement Unit (EDHIU) to explore the potentiality of this sector for milk production and grain usage," he said.

The EDHIU, a quasi government livestock agency, is the lead organisation with which the Council is working to help improve genetics in the buffalo dairy sector, a key factor in ramping up production.