Fiji Cooperative Dairy Company Limited’s Chief Executive, Kushmendra Prasad says the local dairy industry is fighting a battle.
Prasad says a lot of cattles have been removed from farms due to the worldwide spread of brucellosis and bovine tuberculosis.
“Approximately half of the cattle have been removed from the farms. This led to the reduction in the production level. The production fell from 9 million litres to 5.2million litres. The disease is one of the biggest impact. There may be other factors which may be contributing to this.”
Prasad says the production of fresh milk has been on decline for about seven years and the recent outbreak has resulted in increased cost of production in running the farms.
Meanwhile, consumers say they’re being affected by the increased price of locally produced milk and associated products as they have children at home who consume milk on a daily basis.