ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region produces nearly 300,000 tons of fresh milk annually, meeting half of the Region’s demand, an official said on Monday.
"Projects built to raise dairy cattle have increased by 21 percent during the 9th cabinet's term," Firas Siddiq, in charge of the General Department of Livestock Assets in the Kurdistan Region's Agriculture Ministry, told Rudaw.
"We have a total of 91 licensed diary factories, which altogether produce 285,000 tons," he explained, putting the total number of dairy cattle in the Kurdistan Region at nearly 16,000.
Siddiq said to fully cover the domestic needs, the Kurdistan Region needs to increase the annual production to half a million.
He went on to add that many other projects have been granted preliminary approvals in Erbil, Duhok and Sulaimani, pending final approvals by the government.
"We predict the dairy products will get close to 400,000 tons in the Kurdistan Region" with the start of the new projects, he said.
The agriculture ministry officials detailed that dairy cattle are able to produce milk for six years.
The Kurdish market is highly reliant on Iranian and Syrian animals. It also relies on foreign dairy products to meet the local demand.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has identified agriculture as a sector it wants to develop as part of efforts to diversify the economy, rather than merely relying on oil revenues.
