Peru: New dairy regulations to break La Gloria’s dominance

Peru’s Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Jose Hernandez, announced last week that the “Regulations for the production of milk and dairy products”, which seeks to promote domestic consumption and improve public health, will be published shortly.
 
The main objective of the regulation is to create a standard, which did not exist until now, that clarifies and establishes the definition of foods and dairy products. The document has two objectives: to guarantee the quality of the products and to emphasize the nutritional value of the products.
 
The document launched by the Ministry of Agriculture not only encourages the consumption of milk but also, is likely to put an end to the near monopoly of the Gloria Group, a company that holds 84.8% of market share in evaporated milk, as the regulation will encourage producers and other Peruvian entrepreneurs to sell directly to the state’s social programs, such as Qali Warma.
 
The Peruvian Association of Dairy Farmers (Agalep) have complained that Gloria and other companies pay on average 0.70 soles (US$0.20) per liter of milk the producers, a low amount that they must accept due to a lack of alternative buyers.