Importers dominate PH dairy industry – CoA

IMPORTERS continue to dominate the Philippine dairy industry despite an increase in local production, the Commission on Audit (CoA) said in its report.

The CoA said Philippine production had increased from 1 percent in 2012 and 1.2 percent from 2013 to 2016; to 1.3 percent from 2017 to 2018 as the importers retained the lion’s share at 98.7 percent.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority also showed an increase in the number of dairy animals by about 3 percent annually, from 36,069 in 2012 to 47,600 in 2018. As a result, local producers have contributed 23.69 million liters of milk or 1.3 percent of the national dairy requirement of 1.77 billion liters.

The Audit commission, however, said the number of dairy animals was 76 percent below the 198,977- target, while milk production was 54 percent below its 2.8- percent sufficiency target.

The CoA figures showed that Philippine milk production was still below the government’s 10-percent target under the Dairy Road Map ( DRMs) goals, which the Department of Agriculture had set.

The commission attributed the insufficient increase to the lack of coordination among key agencies. It cited that the Philippine

Carabao Center (PCC) crafted its own Strategic Plan 2011-2015, which set lower targets than those set by the DRM 2010-2016.

COA also cited the significant cattle and buffalo mortality rates as a key reason for low local milk production.

The National Dairy Authority ( NDA) recorded 2,614 cattle mortalities or deaths from 2013 to 2018, which was 10 percent of the total dairy cattle population, with losses estimated at P346.65 million.

Meanwhile, the PCC recorded 3,284 buffalo mortalities, which translates into P471.42 million in losses.

The CoA found that the cattle deaths were over problems in herd management, inadequate provision of proper animal healthcare services and lack of provision for housing facilities for the animals.

It has recommended proper coordination among agencies concerned and for them to define clearly the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the DRM.

The NDA and the PCC were also advised to focus on massive upgrading through artificial insemination and bull-breeding, buy-back program, intensified monitoring and efficient collection of animal repayments to increase the inventory of animals.