THE Philippine dairy industry experienced growth in the first three quarters of this year compared to the same period last year, according to a report by the National Dairy Authority (NDA).
While livestock inventory dropped by 1.5 percent from around 9.18 million heads in 2023 to 9.05 million heads in 2024, the dairy inventory posted a “remarkable increase” of 59.4 percent to 152,619 heads in 2024 from 95,749 heads in 2023, the NDA said.
It added that the number of cows and does rose by more than a thousand heads, from 33,792 in 2023 to 34,875 this year, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 3.2 percent.
This growth was complemented by a 25.8 percent increase in DA-assisted dairy entities from 1,077 in 2023 to 1,355 this year, the agency said.
Local milk production also grew by volume to a total of 23.64 million liters compared to last year’s 21.12 million liters, or an increase of 11.9 percent.
“This growth highlights improvements in domestic output; however, the country remains heavily reliant on imports,” the NDA said, noting that imports made up 99.1 of the Philippines’ milk supply.
Imports shot up 24.7 percent to 2.71 billion liters, with the increase coming primarily from the importation of skim milk powder, growing by 40.7 percent to 1.104 billion liters this year from 879.2 million liters in 2023.
Imports of other powdered and ready-to-drink (RTD) milk also increased by 16 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, while imports of other dairy products soared 40 percent to 1.08 billion liters.
Conversely, the NDA said dairy exports declined 13.5 percent to 31 million liters.
By value, local milk production grew 20.8 percent to P1.31 billion, while dairy imports increased 3.5 percent to P61.09 billion.
Meanwhile, the country saw changes in dairy import sourcing as the share of supply from the top two source countries went down to 53.74 this year from 56.55 percent last year, the agency said.
The NDA also underscored that while there have been significant improvements in local dairy production, challenges remain due to the country’s dependence on dairy imports.
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