Karachi: FrieslandCampina Engro Pakistan Limited (FCEPL), subsidiary of the Dutch multinational corporative Royal FrieslandCampina in the Netherlands, is establishing the novel Pakistan–Netherlands Dairy Development Center (PNDDC).
The PNDDC is set to be a premier precompetitive platform with the signature ‘grass to glass’ philosophy underlying FCEPL’s corporate vision – collaboration and integration between industry, experts, academia, and the government.
The agreement Memo was signed between the founding partners; FCEPL and University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) in a ceremony held in Islamabad in attendance of Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, global leadership of FrieslandCampina and Dutch Ambassador.
Syed Fakhar Imam, the Federal Minister for Food Security & Research witnessed the ceremony and appreciated the approach and initiatives of FCEPL, “I am impressed with the work of FrieslandCampina towards dairy development in Pakistan, which is helping to improve food security and livelihood especially in rural settings.”
“Pakistan is a key player in the global dairy market, and it is with initiatives such as the PNDDC, we intend to unleash the tremendous dairy potential in Pakistan and to elevate its role even further in the years to come.” Said
Ali Ahmed Khan, Managing Director, FrieslandCampina Engro Pakistan Ltd “The beginning of this center together with UVAS will pave the way to smoothly implement many of upcoming development programs that are in store.
We are in discussion with Dutch Universities and companies to become part of this center through in-kind and/or in-cash support to achieve the objective of transforming dairy landscape of Pakistan at-par with the Dutch Dairy Sector”.
The company aims to build a bridge with their global tier research, illustrative of their 150 years of experience in the dairy industry in The Netherlands and Pakistan; providing a prime platform that will revolutionize the concept of dairy in the world’s 4th largest milk producing country; unlocking dairy development expertise for all core stakeholders through the sharing of rich Dutch dairy expertise.
Prof. Dr Nasim Ahmed, VC at University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore said “The dairy supply chain is the cumulation of several avenues, livestock training and research being at the core. UVAS is already partnering with FCEPL on various fronts and setting up a formal platform will further strengthen this partnership paving the way to the dissemination of global industry best practices.
“The activities performed by the center will definitely have a positive impact on the dairy sector and the country as a whole.” said by Prof. Talat Pasha, Vice Chancellor University of Education and a leading dairy expert.
“FrieslandCampina, with yet another initiative of bringing Dutch dairy expertise and experience to Pakistan through establishing a formal collaborative platform is certainly laudable and will help to strengthen professional ties between the two countries.” said by Wouter Plomp. the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Pakistan.
The Pakistan Netherlands Dairy Development Center will contribute to the improvement of production, food security, quality, food-safety, and sustainability throughout the dairy value chain of the Pakistan dairy sector.
The center will be located at UVAS and the commencement of operations will begin soon with a detailed 5-year operational plan and activities.
With its partners PNDDC will undertake a variety of activities which include, research and innovation on breeding, feeding, quality and safety of milk; strategic and policy studies; publication of white paper on dairy landscape in Pakistan; running expertise centers; and various capacity building (training) programs.
Moreover, PNDDC would also commence exchange programs, incorporating knowledge and expertise from Netherlands, through arranging expert missions and Farmer2Farmer missions – Dutch farmers and experts would visit Pakistan for guidance and hands-on assistance of local farmers, meanwhile Pakistani farmers will visit Netherlands for hands-on training.
The center would also manage deployment of academic talent (research sponsorship for Pakistani students) at the Netherlands or the countries with comparable challenges & opportunities as Pakistan.