Thailand to promote milk drinking

BANGKOK, March 27 (TNA) -- The Ministry of Agriculture of Cooperatives planned to promote more milk drinking among the public, while planning to join hands with leading department stores to give 5-40 per cent discounts on dairy products, especially milk. Permanent Secretary for Agriculture and Cooperatives Theerapat Prayoonsitthi said the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) together with the Dairy Farming Promotion Organization of Thailand (DPO), and the Thai Retailer Associations have initiated the project to promote more milk drinking throughout the whole year, as milk can help keep a good diet. The committee on dairy farming and dairy products has planned to kick off projects to promote more milk drinking at every festivity in 2017, including Songkran Festival, World Milk Day, Buddhist Lent, and the End of the Buddhist Lent, where milk drinking would continued to encouraged until the New Year of 2018. Mr Theerapat said during the Songkran Festival or between April 1-15, the ministry is set to join hands with the private sector to organise 5-40 per cent discounts on dairy products in all of the country's leading supermarkets and department stores, including Tesco Lotus, Makro, Foodland, Big C, Tops and Max Value. He said shoppers would be able to recognise the discounts as logos of the projects would be clearly put up for everyone to see, so as to provide more options for shoppers to shop for their favourite milk brands. DLD Deputy Director General Tossaporn Srisak, meanwhile, said the main objective of the project is to promote more milk drinking among Thai people, increasing the amount drank from 14 litres per person per year to 20 litres for each person annually, noting that developed Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan have the rate of milk drinking at 30 litres per person per year, while the rate in the US is as high as 70 litres per person every year. Apart from helping to balance a good diet, increased milk drinking could also help create more income for Thai dairy farmers which currently number at 16,248 household nationwide. (TNA)