The Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF), the National Dairy Authority (NDA) and University of the Philippines Institute for Small-Scale Industries (UP-ISSI) have joined hands in conducting a comprehensive market analysis that will help improve the dairy industry.
In a meeting last week, PCAF proposed the conduct of a benchmarking and evaluative study on the dairy industry of the country against those in the region.
PCAF said the study covers trends in the local dairy market, current profitability of local dairy farms and market gaps.
It said findings of the study will aid in crafting future strategies and policies that will develop the local dairy industry and stimulate consumption and demand for local dairy products.
PCAF said Ian Jester de Vera of the UP-ISSI will serve as project director.
Actual data gathering is set to begin on October 16 targetting top milk-producing provinces.
Based on data from the NDA, local production of milk in the country went up 15 percent last year to 30.28 million kilograms (kg) from 2021’s 26.3 million kg., attributed to the higher volume of dairy animal herd.
NDA said local milk production came from the dairy animal herd inventory of 71,819 heads as of the end of last year, up by 3.2 percent compared to 69,616 heads in 2021.
Local production last year served 5.07 percent of the country’s net supply of milk last year which totaled to 597 million kg, up by 13.81 percent from 2021’s 524.54 million kg.
Bulk of the country’s milk and dairy products supply are from imports, reaching 595.64 million kg in 2022, a 13.6 percent growth from 2021’s 523.95 million kg. In terms of value, imports rose 37 percent to $1.2 billion to $1.64 billion, indicating an increase in unit import cost of 23 percent in dollar terms.
The United States was the leading source of imported dairy products in the Philippines as of end-2022, accounting for 33 percent of the total dairy import bill followed by New Zealand with 27 percent, Belgium with 6 percent and Australia with 4 percent.
Despite being not self-sufficient for milk and dairy products, the country exported a total of 28.92 million kg in 2022, up by 12.5 percent from 25.71 million kg in 2021.
