Home ›› 07 Jul 2022 ›› Opinion
Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Our present population is 164.7 million and is estimated to reach 187 million by the year 2030. Now, why are we talking about the population when this article is on the Bangladesh dairy industry? Well, our government aims to produce sufficient milk from domestic sources by 2030. To achieve that, we must keep the population in view and how the demand for milk and other dairy products will increase. Several challenges lay in front of the dairy sector, starting from production cost, ensuring the quality of the dairy products; especially pasteurised milk, proper implementation of the received local and international funding, and investments, etc.
According to lightcastlebd (A Business Consulting Firm in Bangladesh) online research paper, which quotes the Department of Livestock Services, milk production in Bangladesh was 10.68 million metric tonnes in the 2019-20 fiscal year. Between 2010 and 2020, the domestic production of milk has grown five times, with a CAGR of 16.25 per cent. Now the available data regarding the demand for milk is two and half years old, and the Livestock Department website is slow and does not give a clear idea of the milk production figures.
Why are the prices of packaged milk, powder milk, and other dairy products so high in Bangladesh? According to Shah Imran, General Secretary, Bangladesh Dairy Farmers’ Association (BDFA), “The reasons are lack of milk production, high cost of livestock feed, inadequate implementation of funding, and dairy farmers not getting their due price for their product. For example, a good breed of cattle gives milk for 305 days a year. In countries like the USA, in 305 days per cow milk production is 13000 litres. A litre of milk weighs 1.032kg. In India and Pakistan, it’s at least 8000 to 10000 liter. However, in our country, it’s only 2000 liters. The core reason behind this is that we simply do not have superior cattle breeds. Today in Bangladesh, the demand for liquid milk is one crore fifty lakh MT, and there is a gap of forty four lakh MT, between supply and demand. Milk price in BDT in India is 30.24, Pakistan 31.50, USA 31.08, and Denmark 34.86, this piece of information is available in IFCN Dairy Report, 2019.
Although it is undeniable that these data are somewhat old given the Covid-19 pandemic, the recent Russian-Ukraine conflict, which threw the entire world into an economic crisis and a world trade war, no doubt has triggered a price hike in pasteurised liquid milk and other dairy products like most of the products. The proposed tax increase on imported dairy products in the fiscal23 budget does not bear good news for those who prefer imported dairy goods. While on the subject, if you Google packaged milk price, in most of the online super shops, foreign and some local branded private company milk products mostly pop-ups on your screen, while excluding the biggest milk-producing company Milk Vita’s products, which caters to the most percentage of the pasteurised liquid milk market of Bangladesh. Now when we say dairy products, it does not only mean milk or powder milk; it includes cream, curd, butter, butter oil (ghee), milk chocolate, etc. All these dairy product prices have also gone up due to global supply chain disruption, the rise of crude oil prices up to the last count of 120 USD per barrel, which the world saw some 40 odd years ago. Not to mention, a global recession like the world has never seen before is causing the price to increase. Some are terming the present world situation as another cold war heading towards a WW3, but not by weapons but rather fought by sanctions and counter-sanctions among the world-leading powers that are on the run to recruit other countries by their side.
Now EU gives their dairy farmers USD 5 billion as a subsidy; the USA has an allocation of USD 20.3 billion, Canada USD 800 million, and India USD 1.5 billion. The Livestock and Dairy Development project (LDDP) is one of the talked about projects regarding the dairy industry of Bangladesh at the moment. According to Golam Rabbani, Chief Technical Coordinator, LDDP Project “Livestock and Dairy Development project (LDDP) which started on 2019; “This project’s target is to take care of the dairy farmers by forming Farmers Groups. Our target is to establish 5500 farmers group. Already we have 5300 Farmers Groups. The members are trained to use latest technologies, improve farm hygiene and product safety, and improve productivity. So far, this project has received 31 per cent of 428036.48 crore BDT.”
“Activities related to farmers are organising farmers under project group (FG, a farmers group consisting of 30 to 40 farmers), training farmers through farmers field schooling, technology transfer, information sharing, database development, improve hygiene, improve productivity and also connecting FGs to market players. The LDDP has a perfect vision to bring positive change in dairy sector development through working with farmers and the business community for milk collection and processing for product diversifications to reach consumers’ satisfaction and nutrition. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, through this LDDP, the government reached around 6 lakh farm households by providing cash incentives of around 700 crore BDT to compensate for the farmers’ losses.”
There are reports that in the coming Eid UL Adha, the cattle price will be much higher than in previous years. The dairy industry is in a way associated with the meat sector. For example, if there are plenty of cattle, then the price of the dairy product and meat will be lower and will be within reach of the general people. By the way, on another note, the Brazilian embassy in Bangladesh previously tried to meditate trade disputes with Brazil and Bangladesh. Brazil offered prime quality beef at 500 BDT. It got stuck in the loophole as Livestock Department was not that responsive, according to the Brazilian Embassy and Bangladesh. There is blame game going on in this aspect and Bangladesh Dairy Farmers’ Association (BDFA) claims they are the ones who stopped the process of importing beef from Brazil, at least they were main protagonist to stop this from happening. Maybe besides beef, we can try to import better quality cattle breeds from Brazil; after all, their cattle breed for milk and meat are known for their quality. On a lighter note, recently, a Brazilian bovine female produced 127,57 kg/milk in three milkings and beat a 39-year Guinness Book record. The Girolando breed cow ‘Marília FIV Teatro de Naylo’ surpassed a production record that lasted 39 years.
Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) Helen LaFave and the Minister of Fisheries and Livestock SM Rezaul Karim recently celebrated 50 years of US-Bangladesh Cooperation in the Livestock Sector. They were joined by officials from the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, the Bangladeshi industry, and US industry representatives from US Livestock Genetics Export (USLGE). USLGE is a non-profit trade organisation that brings together a broad base of US livestock organisations. “We have provided millions of dollars in funding to develop the livestock industry and are now looking to expand our trading relationship in the sector,” said DCM LaFave. “Each year, Bangladesh sources more and more high-quality livestock and genetics from the United States. Last year alone, Bangladesh imported more than $7 million, a record amount” US Embassy websites also informs. We are happy to know that US-Bangladesh Cooperation in the Livestock Sector has completed 50 years of cooperation; we wish for more success between both the countries.
Recently, World Milk Day was observed in Bangladesh, like in many other countries. There were some programmes organised by the Bangladeshis associated with the dairy sector, and some got media coverage. Nevertheless, none of them actually expressed or stated what they wanted to do to bring more development to the dairy sector.
According to the Department of Livestock Services, there are around 20 lakh dairy farmers in Bangladesh who produce around one crore tonnes of milk every year. We hope necessary steps are taken to motivate the youth to become more attracted to dairy farming. After all, not all of us are going to be software engineers, doctors, or go abroad as a migrant worker or get a government job. This will also give a positive message in the sense that if the young people of the EU are turning towards agriculture, why can’t our youth do the same? Massive publicity and upholding the positive aspect of this industry to the people is the order of the day. We hope that the authorities concerned take firm, practical steps to meet the shortcomings Bangladesh’s dairy industry is facing at the moment, as that will only make the path smoother for the envisioned goal of Bangladesh becoming a self-sufficient country in dairy products.
The writer is a journalist. He can be contacted at [email protected]
