The National Dairy Authority (NDA) is set to ask the Australian government to subsidize as many as 50 dairy processing facilities in the Philippines.
"We're proposing that Australia make us a satellite processing center. We could start to service local consumption and try to slowly penetrate the region (Asian)," said NDA manager Rene De Guzman on Thursday at the inaugural meeting of the Philippine Australian Agriculture Forum at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel In Mandaluyong City.
"we'll be needing, at the onset, 50 facilities that will be dispersed in various dairy-producing provinces. These facilities will enable our dairy sector to rise above the challenges of improving production and the quality of our milk and dairy products," he added, noting that each facility would cost at least 100,000 Australian dollars.
According to government statistics, the Philippines' dairy sector would need some P2.41 billion on average per year for the next six years in order to double its milk sufficiency to 43 percent of the entire local liquid milk market and to triple daily production from to 45 million liters or from 43 metric tons (MT) to 131 MT by 2016.
If these goals are realized, it would offset some $1.06 billion of milk imports, according Dairy Agency Administrator Grace Cenas.
Most of the Philippines' milk imports come from New Zealand (52 percent), followed by the US (16 percent) and Australia (9 percent).
Of the country's yearly milk requirements, imports make up some 76 percent of the supply.
Philippine agriculture secretary Proceso Alcala is hoping to forge a closer partnership with Australia, the world's 13th largest economy and a fellow member of the Cairns Group at the World Trade Organization.
“As the Philippines strives to modernize its agriculture and fishery sector, we recognize the need to expand economic and trading relations with our neighbors in Asia and the Pacific, including Australia," Alcala said.
Figures presented from the Philippine Bureau of Agricultural Statistics showed that the total trade in agricultural products between the two countries reached $292 million in 2009. — TJD
