PBBM leads dairy production plant in Pampanga, expects increased milk supply

SAN SIMON, Pampanga — The opening of the Farm Fresh milk plant in San Simon town in Pampanga is seen to boost the country’s production and supply of milk and other dairy products.
President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr., who led the inauguration of the facility on Oct. 3, emphasized that it will ensure a more effective milk production, and bring hope for a brighter future to Filipinos.
“With the help of this facility, we can now produce up to 32 million liters of pasteurized milk and 2.4 million liters of yogurt every year,” he said.
Also, the plant will also open new livelihood opportunities for farmers and farm workers in the countryside.
Marcos underscored that this is also part of his administration’s response to the struggles faced by the country’s dairy industry.
“We cannot deny that our dairy industry continues to face several challenges. One of which is our heavy dependence on imported dairy products. Climate change has further strained our ability to produce milk locally. We also need modern facilities that can effectively collect and process dairy products,” he mentioned.
Through the milk plant, Filipino farmers and veterinarians will have more stable and dignified jobs.

More livelihood opportunities for the rural community

Farm Fresh Berhad Founder and Group CEO Loi Tuan Ee underscored that the facility will generate more jobs ranging from manufacturing, office and administration, sales and marketing, and distribution.
“We believe that for a country, you want to develop, you want to be inclusive, and when you want to be inclusive, you have to give opportunity to the rural people… give them jobs, because there are not so many opportunities in the rural area,” he stated.
The milk plant is the first part of Farm Fresh’s dairy investment in the country. It also seeks to build a P1 billion large-scale dairy farm and a processing plant.
“What we want to do is we want a bigger processing plant and incorporate our dairy farm. We have the cows producing the milk and a production plant making the product and then we sell it to the market,” he said.
The company pledged to play its part in addressing the Philippines’ food security, and milk sufficiency level.

Improving the PH’s dairy industry

Meanwhile, Farm Fresh Milk Inc. CEO Shawn Pu stated that the company will aid the Philippines’ dairy farming industry by passing on to the local farmers the farming expertise in Malaysia.
“A few months ago, we had a dairy farming seminar in collaboration with the National Dairy Authority, and we invited more than a hundred farmers in Luzon to join us in the seminar. We shared our technical expertise, what works best in how to handle the milk, the milk hygiene, how ingredients affect the milk quality, and also most importantly, we shared our partnership program,” he narrated.
The company will also buy milk from the farmers at a fair market price to ensure that there is a consistent demand source.
In addition, Pu explained that they will explore how local dairy farmers get the right equipment to make sure that their milk is retaining the best quality that they can.
“For a pasteurized milk industry, it is very important that the cold chain is sustained. You need to make sure of the temperature requirement, all the way from the farm to the table of the consumer. That is something that is really important, and also, we need to enable local dairy farmers to have the capability to do that,” he added.
Farm Fresh will also seek to create partnerships with local universities with agriculture and animal husbandry backgrounds and employ their graduates.
In support of the local milk industry, the Marcos administration is strengthening the implementation of the Dairy Industry Development Program.
It provides loans to farmers, distributes dairy animals, and conducts training from dairy management and dairy husbandry up to breeding.
“Rest assured that this administration continues to pursue programs that would hasten the processing of our dairy products. We are currently studying technologies to increase local milk production and ways to attract more investments in the dairy industry,” Marcos shared.
The national government is also working closely with the private sector to extend support to farmers and farm workers. (PIA 3-Pampanga)