UNDER the National Dairy Industry Development Programme, the government aims to ensure self-sufficiency in domestic fresh milk productions by 2025. This gives an opportunity for organisations such as FGV Holdings Bhd (FGV) to benefit from import substitution and aspire to become a significant industry player for locally produced fresh milk in Malaysia.
To-recap, FGV Holdings Bhd (FGV) ventured into the local food industry earlier this year by producing dairy products under its “Bright Cow” brand through its subsidiary FGV Dairy Farm Sdn Bhd (FGVDF).
In less than nine months since the inception of its dairy farm project (in March 2020), FGV’s premium house brand “Bright Cow” has been processing more than 500,000 litres of fresh milk for local consumption contributed by the fresh milk produced by its dairy dairy farm in Linggi, Negeri Sembilan and supplied by external dairy farms.
FGVDF recently received an additional 130 crossbred dairy heifers imported from Australia, which are a hybrid of Jersey and Friesian dairy cattle breeds, amounting to a total of 258 dairy herd size. This shipment of cattle is to fulfill the higher volume of fresh milk production as well as the increase in local demand, especially by the HORECA (Hotel, Restaurant and Cafe) market segment.
FGV’s Linggi dairy farm is undergoing upgradings works – with improvements on the farm’s infrastructure, feedstock areas, milking parlour and cattle barn – which is slated to complete soon.
With the successful implementation of a fully integrated dairy farm project in Linggi, FGV is positioned for strong growth in its venture into fresh milk processing and the dairy farming business.
“Our fresh milk production in Linggi, will see the opening of a brand-new fresh milk factory with a processing capacity of 30,000 litres per day. We have also installed an automated milking parlour and a cloud-based daily milk recording system to ensure the quality of our dairy products and the productivity of our dairy farm,” said FGV’s Group CEO Datuk Haris Fadzilah Hassan.
Meanwhile, the ongoing enhancements shall be finalised in the near future together with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) and the foundation for Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000) certifications.
Additionally, several new “Bright Cow” products formulations, flavours and packaging are also in the pipeline and are now undergoing product testing and stability tests prior to launch which is targeted to take place in April 2021.
FGV’s initiatives are in line with the government’s vision for shared prosperity by offering contract farming opportunities among cattle farmers in the country. – Dec 29, 2020
