The increased consumption of dairy products in Asia and the Pacific is playing a vital role in improving child nutrition and boosting the livelihoods of small farmers across the region, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced.

The announcement was made during the opening session of the Dairy Asia Regional Meeting held in Muak Lek, Saraburi, Thailand. The meeting was attended by a range of stakeholders including public officials, academia and the private sector from dairy-producing countries across Asia and the Pacific.

By the end of 2015, the Asia-Pacific region, as a whole, had achieved the Millennium Development Goal to reduce hunger and undernutrition by half. The increased production and consumption of dairy products in the region are widely viewed as having contributed to the overall success in improving nutrition.