Zubair Qureshi Islamabad
Federal Minister of National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam received a delegation Monday led by Ambassador of Netherlands Wouter Plomp.
The delegation comprised global leadership of Frieslandcampina N.V. which is the largest dairy company in Netherlands. It also owns 51pc of Engro Foods Limited.
The delegation included CEO of Frieslandcampina N.V. Mr. Hein Schumacher, President of Friesland-campina N.V. Mr. Roel van Neerbos and Managing Director of Frieslandcampina Engro Pakistan Ltd. Mr. Ali Ahmed Khan. The meeting was also at-tended by senior officials of the Ministry of Na-tional Food Security and Research.
Fakhar Imam said Pakistan’s estimated annual gross milk production was 63.7 Million tons during 2020-21. He said that the contribution of milk in the na-tional economy can be gauged by the fact that, the annual value of fresh milk exceeds the combined annual value of four major cash crops like wheat, rice, maize and sugar cane.
Around 6-10% of total gross milk production is being processed by 30 milk/dairy processing plants including Engro Foods Limited. Subsistence farm-ing. Which is around 90% of dairying is dominated by subsistence farmers which are the major im-pediment for its development. Since subsistence farmers are scattered, unorganized and uneducated practicing conventional husbandry farming meth-ods.CEO of Frieslandcampina N.V. Mr. Hein Schumacher said dairy sector could play a critical role in eliminating malnutrition. He said that the dairy sector in Pakistan has huge potential for for-eign direct investment by companies like Friesland-campina N.V. He briefed the minister that Pakistan – Netherlands Dairy Development Centre will be developed to help the public sector and the private sector in enhancing the productivity of the dairy sector of Pakistan. Mr. Hein said that Friesland-campina N.V. was keen to leverage its extensive dairy experience spread over 150 years to coolabo-rate with the Government of Pakistan for taking the dairy sector forward.
Imam said that the local production of powdered milk in Pakistan is non-significant thus need more focus and investment in this sphere.
Increased local production of powdered milk will augment the dairy economy of the country and ulti-mately reliance on imports will discourage. During last two years (2019-20 & 2020-21), a total of 88 million tons powdered milk was imported by the private sector worth of US$ 160 million.
Minister said that around 6-10% of total gross milk production of the country is being processed in the country which is inadequate.
One of the main reasons of low production of proc-essed milk dairy products is the imported costly packaging material. Local production of packaging material will improve and enhance the affordability and consumption of processed dairy milk products in Pakistan.
