Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"This year there is no surplus of milk. As you may recall in the past, we had problems where farmers were throwing away milk, because we didn't have enough market for it when the covid period, the shelf life was only 15 days. That has changed now. As a matter of fact, there is somewhat of a shortage of milk right now, because milk is being processed, made into UHD and have a shelf life of 90 days. And as a matter of fact, the farmers are requesting from us to consider tariffing milk. As you all know imported milk does not pay an import duty, it pays only a GST and if we are to protect our local industry, the famers are asking that we consider now increasing tariffs on imported milk. What the farmers are requesting I believe in my view is not unreasonable, but we have to give it careful thought. As a matter of fact, in January of 2021 I took a paper to cabinet requesting for this to be done."