PH seen importing more milk, other dairy products

MANILA  -The Philippines is seen to import more dairy products this year as consumers and the food processing industry will need more of these commodities, a report by the United Nations (UN) said.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the country is expected to purchase 2.9 million tons of dairy in 2023, up by 2.2 percent from 2.8 million tons year-on-year.

On a global scale, total world dairy trade may reach 85 million tons (in milk equivalents) in 2023, a slight increase of 0.5 percent from 84.6 million tons estimated a year ago.

“This is principally due to an anticipated increase in import demand by Algeria, Mexico, Australia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines reflecting a combination of higher demand from the food processing industry as well as rising consumer demand that exceeds potential supplies from internal sources,” the UN food agency said.

FAO said the higher demand for imported dairy in Central America, North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia will offset the import contraction in China—the world’s largest dairy importer—as well as the European Union, Malaysia and Vietnam.

This reflects “higher stocks and increasing supplies from internal sources, more than offsetting possible increases in imports due to the expansion in food services sales, high demand from the food processing and the bakery sectors, with the end of the zero-COVID-19 policy,” it added. INQ