Pakistan can become major milk exporter : Donald

LONDON:As the fourth largest producer of milk in the world, Pakistan has the potential of becoming one of the major exporters of the dairy products but the country needs to adopt modern technology and discard old methods.Speaking on the occasion of Royal Agriculture College Annual 100 luncheon on Thursday, Ian Donald, Managing Director, Nestle Pakistan, explained his company’s contribution in the economy of South Asian country and said Pakistan was collecting 500 million litres of milk from more than 150,000 farmers annually.The company, he said, has recently invested more than US $ 400 million in setting up two of its largest milk plants and has an annual turn-over of more than US$ 700 million in Pakistan for delivering the food and nutrition needs of the people of Pakistan.
Donald said the company is keen to uplift the socio-economic conditions of its suppliers who are mostly small scale producers that own 1-2 milch animals and make their living out of it by selling milk.
Donald said: “The Pakistan dairy sector has a potential to become net exporter of milk being the 4th largest milk producer of the world but due to dominance of the informal sector it still ends up as a net importer of milk powder. His company would be very keen to establish cooperation with the college to get the knowledge and support.”Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK  Wajid Shamsul Hasan also attended the event . The Royal Agricultural College was the first agricultural college in the English speaking world established in 1845 and has made a remarkable achievement in spreading the agricultural knowledge and leadership across the world and especially in the subcontinent.
The annual event attracted more than 150 participants from the food and agricultural businesses from the UK and across the world.
The High Commissioner in his remarks noted that his visit was the first step to build positive image of Pakistan among the UK and world business community and his government would be very keen to work with RAC and their partners to put the country  back on its economic footings that has been affected by the worst crises caused by the floods and terrorism that affected more than 20 million in the country.Hasan stressed the need to continuously gain knowledge and development cooperation with the Royal Agricultural College to strengthen agriculture sector of Pakistan. The Principal Professor Chris Gaskell, and knowledge transfer manager Dr Khalid Mahmood thanked the delegation and showed interest to support dairy development, food chain, food security and rural enterprise development  through research and educational cooperation in Pakistan – App