The Department of Agriculture is creating a blueprint for achieving expanded domestic dairy production and improved livelihoods for dairy farmers, including the review of Republic Act 7884, or the National Dairy Development Act of 1995.

The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. and the DA held a meeting last week, where Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said that the agency will review the said measure, particularly its provision requiring commercial milk processors and domestic dairy cooperatives to agree on the volume of locally produced milk that the commercial sector will absorb.

According to the DA, a volume would have been determined three years after the passage of the act.

“Despite the passage of the law, however, domestic production remains low, at less than 1 percent of annual demand,” the agency said.

PCAFI said that there hasn’t been a volume agreed upon and suggested the DA, through the National Dairy Authority, make a regulation that will “require commercial milk processors and traders to secure their milk supply from local sources (at a volume of) at least five percent of their total requirement, within a full or staggered basis over a certain fixed period.”

The DA cited that the country imported $1.6 billion of milk in 2022, mostly in powdered form, from Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

PCAFI said if a minimum volume cannot be agreed upon between commercial processors and traders, “the DA could either require a safeguard duty on imported milk that will help fund the development of the local dairy industry or require commercial processors and traders to establish their own dairy farms in the Philippines.”

The dairy agency data showed that cattle production last year stood at 17,850 metric tons, which is approximately 0.8 percent of the total milk consumption of 1.937 million metric tons -- 1,372 metric tons higher compared to 2022.

It also projects that there will be an increase in demand for milk consumption this year, estimated to reach 1.978 million metric tons.

The NDA last February expressed a target of increasing the country’s milk output to 80 million liters by 2028.