Metro Pacific’s dairy unit eyes 10 million liters of milk by 2027

Metro Pacific Dairy Farms (MPDF), a joint venture between Metro Pacific Agro Ventures Inc. (MPAV) and Israeli financing firm LR Group Ltd., is targeting to further boost its raw fresh milk production in the next two years.

“So our target by 2027, we should be delivering 10 million liters,” MPAV president and CEO Jovy Hernandez.

In 2022, MPAV formed a 60-40 joint venture with LR Group to build a P2-billion integrated dairy facility.

MPAV is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pangilinan-led conglomerate Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC).

Hernandez said MPDF was producing 500,000 liter of raw fresh milk when it started.

“Last year was the first time we breached the 1 million liters of raw milk. So by 2027, it [would be] 10 million liters,” he said.

The MPAV chief said the integrated dairy farm is on track to be in full operations this year.

He said that MPDF’s current herd of about 1,000 cows, about 200 of which are for milking, will be grown further.

“About 220 milking cows will be arriving [from Australia]… The new herd is expected to arrive by May,” Hernandez said.

To further increase MPRDF’s milk production capacity, he said that “we're now moving some of the non-milking herd to become milking.”

For this year alone, the MPAV chief expressed confidence that MPDF will be able to produce about two million liters of raw fresh milk.

Metro Pacific is aiming to reduce the country’s dependence on importing milk as the country currently imports 99% of its annual dairy requirements. — BM, GMA Integrated News