Alaska Milk Corporation – part of FrieslandCampina Food & Beverage – in close co-operation with the Philippine Department of Agriculture, the National Dairy Authority, the University of the Philippines Los Baños Dairy Training and Research Institute, and Dutch company CRV, have established the Philippine-Netherlands Dairy Excellence Centre.
This centre of expertise aims to improve dairy production in the Philippines and to make it more sustainable by bringing together relevant parties and by sharing Dutch dairy expertise with local dairy farmers, governments, academics, students, as well as others.
The authorities, institutions and companies involved signed an agreement recently in Manila in the presence of representatives from the Dutch embassy. The centre of expertise will focus on various aspects of dairy production, such as quality, productivity and general farm management. There will also be a knowledge exchange with FrieslandCampina’s member dairy farmers.
Tarang Gupta, managing director of Alaska Milk Corporation said “With FrieslandCampina’s expertise on dairy and its ‘from grass to glass’ approach, we are committed to promoting the growth and development of the local dairy sector. In the past, close cooperation between the public and private sectors has proven to be an important success factor. We are pleased to share our experience in the dairy sector with our local partners via the Philippine-Netherlands Dairy Excellence Centre.”
The dairy sector in The Philippines is an underdeveloped sector and is mainly reliant on the import of dairy products. The country is facing major challenges right now. One of such challenge is the country’s fast-growing population, currently at 112 million people with an annual growth rate of more than five percent.
Through Dairy Development, FrieslandCampina is closely involved in efforts to improve local milk supply by investing in education and training for local farmers and building a network of milk collection points. More than 250 Philippine dairy farmers have already been trained in climate-smart and efficient dairy production practices.
Local milk supply has gradually increased over the last decade but is still low. Alaska Milk Corporation intends to realise a broader and more inclusive in-depth growth of local milk production.
It does so by cooperating with local farmers and offering them the necessary expertise and support to improve their knowledge, milk yields and milk quality.
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