The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) is urging the government to enforce the law requiring commercial milk processors and traders to secure a portion of their milk supply from local sources.
Danilo Fausto, PCAFI president, said in an aid memoire addressed to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. that the full implementation of Section 17 of the National Dairy Development Act of 1995 will jumpstart the development of the local industry.
He said the law requires commercial milk processors and traders to obtain a fixed portion of their requirements from the local milk supply in volumes determined by the National Dairy Authority.
“Under this condition, we recommend requiring the commercial sector to secure their milk supply from local sources at least five percent of their total requirement, either in full or staggered basis over a fixed period,” Fausto said.
According to Fausto, those milk processors and traders unwilling to comply with the law are told to “establish their own dairy farm in the Philippines to meet their requirement and not import from other countries.”
He added “a special safeguard duty should be imposed on imported milk products” to allow the development of the local dairy industry.
In February, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said measures have been taken allowing the National Dairy Authority to boost the country’s milk output to 80 million liters by 2028.
The DA acknowledged the volume is a small fraction of the projected demand of 2.143 million metric tons (MT) by 2028.
