The country’s milk production declined last year despite government efforts to beef up the Philippines’s dairy herd, according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Figures from the PSA showed that dairy output last year fell to 4.7 percent to 28,858 metric tons (MT), from 30,281 MT recorded in 2022.
The performance of the dairy sector last year was affected by the drop in the output of Region 4-A (Calabarzon) and Region 3 (Central Luzon), the country’s top milk producers.
PSA data indicated that the milk production of top producer Calabarzon slid to 7,792.47 MT last year, from 9,873.15 MT recorded in 2022. Central Luzon, the second largest producer, saw 2023 dairy output fall to 5,415.83 MT, from the previous year’s 7,872.10 MT.
An industry update from the National Dairy Authority (NDA) indicated that local milk production as well as imports and exports dropped in the third quarter of 2023.
“Nevertheless, there has been an increase in the number of dairy inventory, as well as in the participation of dairy industry players,” the NDA said in a statement.
Philippine milk production as of the third quarter of 2023 fell by 11 percent year-on-year, according to NDA. Despite this, the share of local milk in total supply reached 23 percent.
“Consequently, local milk production contributed to approximately one glass out of every five glasses of liquid milk supply.”
Data from the NDA also indicated that imports of milk and milk products went down by 18 percent to 2,175.05 MT liquid milk equivalent (LME), from 2,636.93 MT-LME. The import payment bill fell by 16 percent to $1.063 billion in September from the previous year’s $1.259 billion.
In a report published last year, the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the United States Department of Agriculture in Manila said Philippine milk output will rebound in 2024.
FAS said production will rise to 29,000 MT, boosted by an increase in the dairy herd and the active implementation of the government’s dairy development projects.
“Despite production improvements, the Philippines supplies only one percent of its total annual dairy requirement, with the rest imported,” the report read.
It noted that production growth has been slow in recent years because of the inability to increase the dairy herd, mostly due to insufficient funding and little investment from the private sector.
FAS said the top milk-producing areas are on the island of Luzon, including Laguna, Bulacan, and Batangas. Davao and Bukidnon in southern Mindanao are also major producers.
In 2023, FSA said the PSA had estimated the country’s beginning inventory of dairy cattle (female dairy animals only) at 9,730 heads, while there are 7,240 buffalo, and 14,908 goats.
Image credits: AP/Mark Baker