Bangladesh far behind in milk consumption

25 Sep 2020 11:56 AM
Image collected
Bangladesh continues to be far behind the milk consumption when compared to global consumption, posing serious health risk creating huge nutrition crisis. Experts have underscored the necessity for undertaking holistic measures to improve the milk production to create a healthy nation.

The global per capita milk consumption is 108 liters per year while it is merely 9.97 litre in Bangladesh.

According to latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) data, the per capita per day milk consumption was 33.7 ml this year 2010 and 32.4 ml in 2005. The HIES data is indicating that the per capita milk consumption is slowly but surely declining in Bangladesh. Even, the milk consumption rate in Bangladesh is far behind the neighboring countries. The per capita milk consumption rate of India is 68.7 liters, accompanied by 41 liters for Nepal, 79 liters Maldives and 159 liters in Pakistan. In this backdrop, Finland is maintaining highest milk consumption at around 430.76 liters, while it is 234.49 liters for Australia, 232.20 for United Kingdom, 209.30 liters for USA, 163.57 liters for Russia, 137.25 liters for New Zealand, 132.66 litters for United Arab Emirates and 55.75 litters for South Africa.

Meanwhile, there is contradiction between government data and private sector data on milk production in Bangladesh. According to Department of Livestock (DLS), Bangladesh produces 9.4 million a great deal of milk against the requirement of 15.04 million tons. However, International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) data disclosed that total milk production in Bangladesh stands at 8.08 million tons. According to DLS and IFCN data Bangladesh is competent to meet only 63 percent or 54 percent of the neighborhood demand respectively.

A senior official of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) said that Bangladesh imports 0.11 million a great deal of milk from the overseas country to meet the neighborhood demand. The per capita milk consumption decreased substantially in Bangladesh since 2005, he said adding that the per capita each day intake of milk is nearly nine fold less than what the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.

WHO recommends, a person ought to drink 250 ml or 250 grams of milk each day, to find the required amount of calcium, and protein.
Speaking with Daily Industry, Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association president Imran Hossain said, some 0.3 million dairy farms in the united states plus some 10.2 million persons rely upon farming. Bangladesh needs additional six million a great deal of milk to meet the local demand. Achieving self-sufficiency will be quite challenging for Bangladesh unless we have a holistic method of increase milk production, he lamented.

Around 350,000 dairy farmers across Bangladesh are struggling to survive concentrating COVID-19 pandemic. He urged the federal government for disbursing stimulus loan package for the farmers to improve the milk production in the country. “Dairy farms in the country are in a bad shape, so, the federal government should provide the cash incentive immediately to boost the production level from the prevailing trend”, he added.

Imports of powdered milk and milk products add considerable costs and it’s estimated that the country imports a lot more than 100,000 a great deal of powdered milk and milk products, spending a lot more than US$237 million, he added.
So far, some three companies have plants to manufacture powdered milk nonetheless they tend to import the item from abroad for more profit, he mentioned.

He urged the livestock minister and the secretary to take initiatives for processing the powdered milk in the country which would help meeting the neighborhood demand as well concerning saving foreign currency, According to physicians, milk is a wonderful way to obtain calcium and phosphorous required for healthy growth of bones and teeth, and an important ingredient in growth and proper functioning of your body.

Despite a lot more than tripling production from FY08 to FY18, Bangladesh still faces a considerable deficiency available in the market, industry insiders s

Tags