Dairy Farming Promotion Organisation (DPO), a Thai state enterprise under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and producer of Thai-Danish milk, has set a sales target of 11 billion baht ($370 million) this year after missing its aim of achieving 10 billion baht in sales last year due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Thai-Danish only sold 9.5 billion baht worth of milk and milk products last year.

DPO acting director Suchart Jariyalertsak said: “To achieve the target this year, DPO will use a three-pronged strategy by focusing on the dairy industry, marketing and dairy cow farming.

“For the dairy industry, we plan to install two high-speed packing machines for UHT [ultra-high-temperature-treated] milk at our factories in Khon Kaen and Prachuap Khiri Khan, which will boost our production capacity to 24,000 cartons per hour.

“We also plan to bring one or two new products to the market per year and boost the market share ratio of ready-to-drink milk between traditional markets and modern trade to 50:50.”

As for marketing promotion, DPO plans to add its Chew-D UHT yoghurt, which was introduced in mid-2020 and received a good response, to shelves in 7-Eleven convenience stores to maximise sales.

Suchart added: “DPO will also expand the sales channels of refrigerated products, such as pasteurised milk, yoghurt, drinking yoghurt and ice cream by making them available via modern trade and online channels such as Lazada and Shopee.

“In terms of dairy cow farming, DPO has strictly followed measures announced by the Department of Disease Control to curb the spread of Covid-19 and other communicable diseases to ensure the safety of farmers and staff.

“This year we will also be working with Betagro and Charoen Pokphand Foods who will help bring modern technology to dairy cow farmers who are part of the DPO cooperative to boost their productivity.”

THE NATION (THAILAND)/ASIA NEWS NETWORK