The Doha-based Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (Goic) has called for the formation of a dairy producers’ union in the GCC region as a step towards unifying production policies.

According to a Goic report, the union would be responsible for making all necessary purchases in a unified procedure, marketing products in a collective manner, and supervising a grant for setting up new factories for dairy products or expanding the designed capacities of those in operation.
It would also direct investments towards certain dairy products where production is less. Finally, it would establish a research institute for dairy and milk production to satisfy the requirements of the industry.
There are 153 dairy factories in the GCC with a designed capacity of 3.2 million tonnes annually.
Investments are estimated at $1.8 billion and there are 21,666 employees.
Saudi Arabia owns the largest number of dairy factories in the GCC, with a share of about 60 per cent. Its investment share is estimated at 83 per cent and a capacity share of 72 per cent.
Utilised capacity average for GCC factories stands at about 60.6 per cent
Saudi Arabia and Oman own the largest share in the utilisation of designed capacities with an average of 72.3 per cent and 67.4 per cent respectively.
The report highlighted several obstacles facing the dairy industry, which include the lack of natural grazing; investments needed to set up advanced irrigation systems, and high weather temperatures and climate change that cause low milk production in certain genealogies.
The spoiling of dairy products because of delays in refrigeration was also another problem.
According to the report, these problems could be solved by finding new markets, observing quality issues, increasing production capacities, performing research and studies to develop production and by transferring and distributing products with the help of specialised firms.