A huge surplus of milk in Thailand has led the Agricultural Ministry to petition
the cabinet for a 300m baht grant, for the purpose of building a powdered milk
factory.
The 600m baht project has been approved in principle, with the other half of
the funding provided by the Asian Development Bank. The National Economic
and Social Development Board (NESDB) is still unsure however about whether
it should go ahead.
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The ministry argues that the factory will be used to process raw milk and supply
schools with milk worth around 6m baht annually. During school holidays, children
could take powdered milk home and the project will benefit dairy farmers, who
will be able to process the milk surplus, explained deputy agriculture minister
Praphat Panyachartrak.
Rapeepong Wongdee, director-general of the Livestock Development Department,
added: "The investment is worthwhile if we take into account that we have
to import 360 million cartons, worth 540m baht a year, and pack the milk for
schools nationwide."
The ministry anticipates that for the next month, a daily surplus of 340 tons
will continue to stock pile and in the short term, it is hoped that a soft loan
of 500m baht from the Farmers’ Assistance Fund is will ease the surplus
by funding private companies to produce 100m boxes of ready-to-drink milk. The
ministry will then need to stress the need to improve the quality of ready to
drink milk, if factories are to witness growth in the market.
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