BSS:

Officials and entrepreneurs have opined that appropriate support of different public-private organizations in milk production and marketing system has helped enhance output of milk and also increase the quality of milk products in the district.

Absence of proper production and marketing system led the small entrepreneurs of the district unable to catch the big market of their products in the past long years although the district has nearly 33,000 cattle farms, they said.

Several hundred entrepreneurs in some upazilas of the district are preparing various types of milk products including ghee, cheese, milk chick, labang, whey milk, sweetmeat and card and the annual market price of these milk products is over hundred crore.

Regarding the cooperation of public private organization, an entrepreneur Basudev Chandra Roy said, “I am doing the business of manufacturing ghee and milk chick from the milk from 2002 but we did not get BSTI certificate.

But, at last he got the certificate with the help of a private organization sustainable Enterprise Project (SEP) recently.

Even measures of quality verification and setting up of cooker with chimney and water tank with the assistance of SEP has increased the quality, price and selling of the milk products, he said.

Manager of a sub-project like Sustainable Micro Enterprise and Resilient Transformation (SMERT) Abdul Maleque said now the project is running at two upazilas (Shahjadpur and Ullahpara)in Sirajganj and Bera upazila in Pabna.

Under the project, he said about 1,500 entrepreneurs under the sub-project is working with 22 milk products, adding that they [entrepreneurs ] are manufacturing nearly 30 tonnes cheese and 3,000 kg ghee and earning nearly Taka 15 crore in year.

Maleque said there are at least 120 milk product entrepreneurs and the annual market of the milk products stands more than Taka 120 crore.

In 2023-24, around 7,16,000 tonnes milk were produced in the district while now nearly 19 lakh liter of milk is being produced in the district. But different private and public milk collectors and processor including the Milk vita, Pran and Arong are collecting only 1.50 lakh liter of milk in a day.

The livestock farmers are producing milk in less cost due to the cooperation of different public and private organizations, said district livestock officer Dr AKM Anwarul Huq.

The initiative also has helped create new entrepreneurs of the milk products , but higher price of cattle feed and access to big market is now remain  as a challenge for the industry, he added.