In a meeting between the Minister of Agriculture, Jhenifer Mojica, and Ana María Gómez, president of Asoleche and the National Dairy Council, there was a willingness to build solutions to boost consumption, with guarantees of aid to small and medium producers.

The Minister of Agriculture of Colombia, Jhenifer Mojica, participated in yesterday's Wednesday session of the National Dairy Council, given concerns about low consumption and overproduction. The dairy sector showed a willingness to build solutions, with alternatives related to price, financing and its presence in the different regions of the country.

The National Dairy Council opened dialogue with the Ministry, to expand alternatives to issues that guarantee aid for small and medium producers. “In the end, we all depend on the people who have the cows and who milk them every day. From the State, the industry and even consumers,” said Mojica, adding that the loss extends to the market in general, not just for farmers.

“We have to leave here with agreements that guarantee that milk will not be lost in Colombia,” mentioned the head of the agricultural portfolio. Meanwhile, the sector is working on a campaign to encourage consumption, with alternative uses for milk inventories to avoid losses.

For her part, Ana María Gómez, president of Asoleche and the National Dairy Council, noted that the meeting was positive and active, given the high participation of the different unions and the Ministry. In addition, he said that the Government has the attention and intention to “build solutions that benefit all links in the chain and ensure its sustainability.”

“The work path that we set is to analyze the initiatives that we proposed around promoting consumption and reactivating the entire chain, starting with the ranchers,” said Gómez.

The next meeting was scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, June 28.

What are the challenges of the sector?

Milk production was 7,097 million liters in 2023, 5% less than in 2022, while milk consumption fell more than 9% and the price increased 2.1%.

The drop in consumption during the last two years has put an industry with high inventories in trouble, with nearly 200 million liters of milk equivalent in stock.

On June 6, Gómez mentioned that recovery would be difficult. Given the economic situation of the country and lower consumer purchasing power, the purchase of milk also falls. In this way, while the producer price index continues to increase, the industry strives not to transfer that impact to the price of the final consumer.

According to Minister Mojica, “currently, a third of the population is food insecure and this happens because there is no access to food, in many cases due to logistical issues.”