Yesterday FIDAF threw away 13,500 still-good milk down a hurriedly-dug earth drain.
I could not bear to see the product of high investment and hard-work by the management and workers of FIDAF went into the drain like that. I just shied away from the site and let the responsibility of creating awareness among us to love our own product through that special drama to FIDAF MD and staffs.
I know many of us were surprised by the act, but to tell you the truth, it is part and parcel of dairying in Malysia. I have seen in many times when I was in Terengganu, Perak and Malacca. They threw away milk down the drain many a times.
It is business, so they say. But, there is a big but here.
We all talk about patriotism, love our country. Do we really? To be patriotic does not only involve hoisting the Jalur Gemilang on certain days, but also love our very own products, including our milk!
Everyone in the milk industry, be it the great consumers, the industrialists, the milk processors and everyone should have a heart to our own milk.
We all should take pride of our own over and above other countries' milk!
Give due attention to what we drink. Take a look at milk cartons, bottles or other types of packaging and see what is the % of milk inside our own product.
Insist on our own product. Don't just because of profit, we accept foreign products over own own.
Why should we give priority to foreign milk over our own? It does not matter what the contract says. Accept our own milk first. It is sad to know that the opposite happens everytime we send our milk to milk factories. They came up with all sorts of excuses to reject our own product.
We should help our own dairy farmers. Drink more milk produced by them.
Coming back to the big hurrahs last night, as soon as the thing came out on TV3 Bulletin utama calls kept on coming.
First it was from my DDG1. I was driving at the time. I told him what has happened at the PC. He was interrupted by MOA KSU's call...
Then the KSU himself called me what happened and asked me what to do next...
Just before I called it a night last night, Yani from TV3 called for a follow-up. I told her to wait. DVS is going to give a PC as soon as possible.
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6 comments:
I have no idea what happened to the milk that need to be poured down to the drain. It was a long time that I did not see any "Lembu susu segar" on the shelves of supermarkets. I used to purchase them. I suppose the people that managed the milk business is still not good enough to drive the demand from this competitive market.
Malaysians are generally no milk-drinkers lot.
They are still mostly (except the Indians and Punjabis) flavoured-milk or beverage drinkers.
Unlike in the West, India and Pakistan where the people drink milk as it is daily.
I know of a dairy farmer in Pakistan who owns 10,000 dairy buffaloes producing 30,000 litres milk daily.
He never find the need to use refrigerated tankers or government aid to market his milk. He sold his milk from house to house and also to sub-contractors.
Here, most milk go to milk processing factories in Klang valley and JB. Their acceptance depends mostly on the amount of milk received that day.
My family drinks milk a lot especially my son and perhaps for that reason he is a 6 footer. My wife and my daugther also recently consume a lot of yoghurt.
We have 26 milions Malaysians, by right we should use up a lot of milk, dairy products or milk powder IF all the raw milk is sourced from local. Unfortunately, we have to import most finished products mainly because Malaysians' mentality always perceives that imported milk powder is better and safer. The recent incident in China was a reflection of how poorly managed milk powder factory could cause havoc and their citizens lose confidence!
What a waste! We could have converted it to lactobacillus brew and distribute it at low cost to farmers to use in their farm to reduce smell, disease, etc.
HS Wong,
How much milk can you handle at any one time?
Dato, if it is a one-off thing, it's not worthwhile to invest in vats, etc.
It may be more productive long-term wise to approach UPM or Mardi to teach these dairy farmers how to convert surpluses into secondary products like lactobacillus brew, etc which from my experience can be stored for up to one year and still remain effective.
Below production-cost prices for many agro produce are a global problem arising from the current international economic setup. It is not going to change any time soon.
For farmers especially those in developing countries like Malaysia, once markets are opened up, it will only get worse.
Regards and Happy New Year.
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