Daily Times

Pakistan is known as one of the world’s largest raw milk producers. The country’s demand for nutritious, high-quality foods with a long shelf life is rising by the day. Milk products are biochemically unstable, meaning they deteriorate easily and readily tolerate foreign odours and materials. The dairy industry in Pakistan is notoriously unregulated, and the entire marketing chain is run by private companies. In most cases, milk is processed in unsanitary conditions, resulting in inferior quality. One of the most significant goals in today’s milk production is to keep a high level of hygiene. Dairies are implementing this by slowly increasing their quality standards for raw milk, as hygiene has a direct effect on the production’s economic result. Consumers, on the other hand, are worried about the quality of dairy products and the conditions under which they are made.

Taking into account the low quality of milk and its goods available to customers, the unsanitary conditions of livestock sheds, the failure to bathe animals before milking, hand milking, the collection of small quantities, the use of non-recommended utensils and containers for its handling, the long distance between production and consumption locations, and inadequate transportation facilities, lack of or non-availability of milk cooling systems, high ambient temperatures, and additives and preservatives used to extend shelf life are main quality related problems in the milk production systems of Pakistan. Instead of fixing the consumers’ nutrition, all of these issues collectively raise health-related concerns.

Towards challenging part, Pakistan’s dairy sector is currently confronted with a number of issues, including extensive commercial dairy farming, a lack of dairy system training and education, and a lack of financial resources. Furthermore, the absence of quality controls is the most overlooked part of the entire system. To put it another way, there are no tests at any point in the informal marketing chain. On the other hand, due to high poverty levels and inflation, the majority of our consumers are price conscious and tend to buy raw loose milk, making loose milk marketing the backbone of Pakistan’s milk marketing system.

The informal dairy industry needs to be transformed into a more formal and structured industry. A commercially led dairy production programme is needed for this transition to take place. A range of steps must be taken to achieve this, including improved farm management, better market access, improving the milk supply chain, recording the position of milk traders and encouraging more investment in the dairy sector. Improved testing facilities, farmer training and capacity building, veterinarian training, improved cold chain via milk chillers, promoting safe pasteurized milk, developing model commercial dairy farms, and an emphasis on breed development are all needed to formalize and boost the dairy industry.

It is important to ensure high quality at any point of this chain. Raw milk must therefore be derived from healthy animals under sanitary conditions, with all monitoring measures in place from production to consumption to protect human health. By providing farmer education, introducing strict quality checks, and developing cold chain collection and supply systems, these programmes aim to ensure the production of sanitary milk. Various techniques should be adopted by the corporate private sector to ensure milk quality and protection during processing. All of these measures can enable the dairy industry of Pakistan to proceed at an adequate level. These techniques will help dairy units to rise in size, milk collection, processing, and marketing will get improved, and dairy input supplies will increase (machinery, equipment, feeds, semen, and elite dairy animals), and improve farmers experience and skills on modern techniques practices.

Talal Zafar Pirzada is a fourth-year undergrad student doing his Bachelors in Science & Business (BSB) majoring in Operations from Forman Christian College Univesity (FCCU). He has a diverse experience of working with Coca-Cola Icecek as Supply Chain Intern, Careem as Marketing Intern, In Tetra Pak as Human Resource Intern.