School Milk Nutrition,
Milk Deficits and SSD -
the Experience of Thailand

Dairy Cattle in Thailand

• Most dairy cattle are crossbreeds owned by small farmers with an average of 18 animals per holding.

• In 2003, there were 191,844 cows; 443,243 dairy cattle; 24,784 farms (1.1% of families involved in agriculture)

• The average milk production is 10.30 kg./head/day.

The Consumption of Milk and Milk Products

• Only 30% of the domestic milk market is currently supplied by domestic production, with the balance being met by imported milk, mostly milk powder valued at almost US $ 280 million annually for milk products -condensed milk, yoghurt and ice-cream.

• Thailand produces raw milk about 2,000 tons/day. 1,200 tons/day are processed for school milk programme for 230 days a year.

The School Milk Programme

• The 7^th National economic and social development plan (1992-1996)
  -In 1992, the government launched the school milk programme with budget allocated about US $ 14 million to provide drinking milk for children at Kindergarten 200 cc./head/day.

• In 2004, the programme has been expanded to Kindergarten and primary school for 230 days/year valued at almost US $ 180 million. There are 5,991,197 children involved.

Small-scale Dairy Training
Programme in Thailand

Background

• The government policy to encourage small farmers to raise more cattle to increase milk production and reduce milk imports.

• The DLD is responsible for organizing a dairy development programme to up-grade milk quality to meet safety standards and to allay consumer concern about the safety of locally produced milk.

The Problems Related to Expanding the Dairy Development Programme to Rural Areas

• The transportation over long distances for collecting milk from rural areas to processing units is expensive

• The strict regulations applied by the food and Drugs Administration to get an operating licence.

• Rural milk collectors and processors have limited experience in the handling and processing of safe milk.

• In 2002, the Thai government requested technical assistance and inputs from FAO to help overcome these difficulties.

• The project started in September 2002 and completed in August 2004.

• FAO provided a grant of US $ 359,000 covering equipment, training and technical advisory services.

Objective

to develop the organization of short-term, tailor made training courses at the Chiang Mai Dairy Training Centre of the Department of Livestock Development for persons and organizations involved in milk production, collection, processing and marketing to improve efficiency, quality and safety throughout the farm to consumer milk chain.

Project Outcomes

Outcome 1.

Established a dairy demonstration and training unit at Chaing Mai Dairy Training Centre (CDTC) for the safe collection, processing and distribution of milk and dairy products.

Outcome 2:

Improved small-scale milk collection and in-pouch pasteurizing and dairy products field tested at Ban patung Huay Mor Dairy Cooperative and validated to comply with the Food and Drugs Administration food standards and regulations.

Outcome 3:

Three residential short-term tailored training modules developed, tested and introduced for the village-based small-scale dairy sector.

Course No. 1: Training of Trainers course and Guidelines

Course No. 2: Quality Assurance in Milk Collection

Course No. 3: Hygienic Milk Handling and Processing Technology

Outcome 4:

Training completed for 10 technicians who form the core dairy training team at CDTC.

Outcome 5:

Ten mobile outreach training programmes were carried out according to clients needs.

Outcome 6:

The main finding of the training evaluation workshop were that both the residential and outreach training courses had exceed the target number of trainees to 480 (33% female) against a set target of 280 participants.

Outcome 7:

Ban Patung Dairy Co-operative plan to start with a few most popular products like pasteurized milk, ice-cream, yoghurt, drinking yoghurt, cream cheese and condensed milk. At present they can sale ice-cream over 20,000 Baht per month.

Outcome 8:

The in-pouch pasteurizer and the milk evaporator have been fabricated by a Thai company (Lanna Foods)

Effect of FTAs and WTO on Small-scale Dairy Sector

Thai farmers should prepare for

- High competition on milk quality
- Low cost production

But they still get benefit on

- Nutrition value of fresh milk

Thank You