Uruguay wants to make its dairy industry more competitive

Uruguay’s Ministry of Ranching, Agriculture and Fisheries on Tuesday gathered representatives from the dairy industry to create a roadmap for increasing the country’s competitiveness in the sector.

The idea is to “address all aspects of the dairy industry,” given the various problems that the sector faces, Minister Enzo Benech told reporters.

“Three companies have closed, a few producers have gone under, a number of sources of employment have been lost, but Uruguay nowadays has more milk than last year and we live in a country where we only take 8 percent of the milk we produce, 30 percent is consumed in other ways and 70 percent is sold,” said Benech.

Meanwhile, the minister emphasized that the objective of the open meeting is for each member of the industry to express their opinion so that a plan and commitments can be established.

“We are sellers to the world market, basically, of powdered milk and some cheese. I believe that we have to work on product diversification, raising prices, serving other markets and lowering costs,” Benech said.

Assorted experts are participating in the technical conference including representatives of the Agricultural Programming and Policies Office, the National Agricultural Research Institute, the Office of Planning and Budget and the Technological University of Uruguay, among others.