Pakistan will require 25,000 high performance animals each year with 15 percent increase till 2020 due to greater awareness and demand for better quality dairy products in the country. This was disclosed at a ‘Dairy and Livestock Conference’ arranged by a private firm in Lahore with over 200 participants from all over Pakistan representing the dairy farmers, small and large corporate farms, representatives from federal and provincial governments, NGO sector, USAID, USDA and others.
Dr Japie Conraidie, Head of Nestle’ Pakistan gave a brief history of the importation of the better producing cows to Pakistani market and explained how the industry has evolved since the time he was on the first ship taking the cows off. He explained that since the white revolution slogan has shown many changes in the dairy sector of Pakistan, resulting in an increase in milk production, better breeding, AI awareness and better animal husbandry. During this period, we also saw a wave of milk processing facilities opening up in Pakistan including UHT, fresh, powdered, organic and value added products.
All of these efforts increased the consumer awareness for better products and helped in developing major co-operatives and value chains. In the mean time we also saw an increase in the number of pure bred and cross bred animals in Pakistan. There are many companies operating in Pakistan with tested semen of local and imported breeds and live animal imports.