Philippines, Qatar partner for potential US$500 million integrated dairy project

The Philippines, through the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), partnered with Baladna Qatar Public Shareholding Company (QPSC) for the establishment of a $500mn integrated dairy facility in the Philippines, it was announced.

The Philippines, through the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), partnered with Baladna Qatar Public Shareholding Company (QPSC) for the establishment of a $500mn integrated dairy facility in the Philippines, it was announced. “The DA, through the National Dairy Authority (NDA), fully support and welcome this new initiative as this will help jumpstart catalytic investments in the Philippine dairy industry to contribute to food security, local milk production and processing leading to agri-industrial development,” said DA secretary William Dar, who was present during the event with DTI secretary Ramon Lopez and Baladna independent board member Aidan Tynan, on February 11 in Dubai, UAE. In his presentation, the DA chief reported that the majority of the country’s annual dairy requirement is supplied by importers and processors, as the Philippines is a big importer of dairy products, particularly milk powder. He added that, in 2020, the Philippine dairy industry was characterised by increasing local milk production and decreasing imports and exports of milk and dairy products. The local milk production reached 26.71mn liters, an increase of 9.5% from 24.38mn liters in 2019. Baladna QPSC is into raising livestock and production of dairy products including milk, yogurt, cheese, labneh, cream, dessert, juices, as well as animal fertilisers. The company is Qatar’s largest locally-owned food and dairy producer, supplying more than 95% of the country’s fresh dairy products. The firm now owns more than 24,000 Holstein cows on its 2.6mn square-meter facility with 40 state-of-the-art barns, has a daily capacity of producing up to 450 tonnes of fresh milk and juice products on a daily basis, and has more than 1,650 employees. Baladna expressed its interest in setting up a large-scale and fully integrated dairy facility in the Philippines designed to be climate-independent using world-class management systems. The project will significantly increase local milk production by 120mn liters from the current milk production of 26.71mn liters. This will be bringing the Philippines’ total milk production to 146.71 mon liters, thus contributing to addressing the local demand of 2,927.04 mn liters, of which bulk is imported. “The investments will be able to generate 2,000 new jobs during the initial phase of its first full year of operations, providing significant opportunities for domestic employment,” Dar said. Baladna underscored that their main consideration for supporting the Philippine government is to level the playing field and foster domestic dairy production. Meanwhile, the support of DTI, through the Board of Investment, is through the facilitation of the availement of incentives under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises law, which may also be extended to manufacturers who will be sourcing locally their inputs. DTI and DA have also agreed to work together in looking at measures that will level the playing field such as implementing proper labelling of fresh milk. “DA has already identified five possible locations for the Baladna project and welcomes the Baladna team in the next few weeks for the site visit in the Philippines. DA will continuously provide the needed support to fast track the implementation of this project in coordination with DTI and other partner agencies,” Dar said. Also present during the presentation of the signed MoU were Acting Public Works and Highways Secretary Roger Mercado, and Labour Secretary Silvestro H Bello III. (Rita dela Cruz, DA StratComms) Source: Philippines’ Department of Agriculture