KUALA LUMPUR: FGV Holdings Bhd (FGV) targets to produce 30,000 litres of fresh milk per day from its dairy farm in Linggi, Negri Sembilan, its group chief executive officer Datuk Haris Fadzilah Hassan said.
He said in less than nine months since the inception of the dairy farm project in March, the premium house brand "Bright Cow" had been processing more than 500,000 litres of fresh milk for local consumption from the Linggi plant and external dairy farms.
"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.
"These efforts are scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2021," Haris Fadzilah said in a statement today.
FGV said recently, FGV Dairy Farm had received an additional 130 crossbred dairy heifers 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.
The overall upgrading work for FGV's Linggi dairy farm is almost complete, with improvements on the farm's infrastructure, feedstock areas, milking parlour and cattle barn, while the upgrading work for the calf barn is 100 per cent complete.
FGV said the ongoing enhancements would 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.
Several new Bright Cow product 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.
Under the National Dairy Industry Development Programme, the government aims to ensure self-sufficiency in domestic fresh milk productions by 2025.
The group said this gave an opportunity for organisations such as FGV to benefit from import substitution.