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By Chino S. Leyco Researcher
THE National Dairy Authority (NDA)
said Monday that the government cannot control the acceleration of
milk prices in the local market because the Philippines is highly
dependent on imports.
Naomi K. Torreta, NDA officer in
charge, said that the country can only hope that in the coming
years, the local milk industry can generate higher yields to somehow
offset the effect of a drought affecting two milk producing
countries, New Zealand and Australia.
Torreta said information reached
NDA, showing retail prices rose by P0.50 to P1.
“This is just a minimal change
as compared to world market prices,” she said.
Torreta said locally produced raw
milk reached 12 million kilograms last year, adding that this year,
NDA is targeting to produce an additional one million kilograms to
13 million kilograms.
She also said that local milk
farmers are also asking for price increases of at least P2 to P3,
from P16 a liter.
Agency data showed that 99
percent of Philippine milk supplies are imported, and these are
mainly from New Zealand with a 50-percent market share and Australia
with 14 percent.
But Torreta assured that to date,
the country has sufficient stock of milk.
Trade Undersecretary Zenaida C.
Maglaya said most milk companies are implementing a gradual
increases of four to five percent until end-December.
Torreta said that in the first
quarter of the year alone, the price of imported ready-to-drink milk
jumped by 160 percent, while imported powdered milk soared 31.38
percent year on year.
“The appreciation of the peso
against the US dollar helped to lessen the costs of imported milk.
If we had a weak currency, there could have been much higher price
increases,” she said.
Torreta said the price of solid
milks in the world market was only $2,000 per metric ton in the
final three months of last year, but rose to $4,000 to $5,000 per
metric ton since then.
The Food and Agriculture
Organization also said that international dairy prices increased 46
percent between November 2006 and April 2007, with powdered milk
prices increasing even faster.
The International Dairy Foods
Association said farm milk prices have hit an all-time record high
last month.
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