LAHORE: FrieslandCampina, formerly known as Engro foods, is going to set up a solar park on 15 acres of land with a capacity of producing 2.5mw of electricity as a part of its efforts to put all its operations at Sahiwal plant on clean and green energy.
Currently the plant, producing both milk and ice-cream, is generating power through furnace oil/gas and the Company wants to at least achieve 50 percent of its requirements from clean and green energy sources by the year 2025 as part of their commitment to UN Sustainable & Development Goals.
“Being an environment friendly company, we have aimed to become CO2 neutral site means no longer emit any unnecessary greenhouse gases in long-term. At present only 15 percent of the energy requirement is being met through use of bio-mass which runs the boiler to generate steam and then produce electricity,” said the Company plant’s General Manager Nasar Ailia Naqvi GM Plant.
He was talking to a group of select journalists who visited Sahiwal plant in connection with the Company’s 150th anniversary the other day. Similarly, efforts are being made that all the water used in the operations should be recycled to use it again and put less burden on underground water. However, sewage water would be recycled to irrigate the grass and plantation, Nasar added.
Nasar said that the company has two plants one in Sahiwal and the other near Sukkur. Both will be put on solar energy but the programme in Sukkur will be implemented after Sahiwal.
Muhammad Sohail Sarwar, Head of Agri Business, while talking to journalists said the biggest challenge in dairy sector is low productive animals and high input costs, especially feed and energy. He suggested that the government should help the farmers in this matter and make some interventions to lower the feed costs by producing them locally. Recently a very good initiative taken by government is provision of good quality semen for the farmers to improve the local breed. Similarly, he said that farm machineries such as milking machines, forage harvesters etc have higher import duties and taxes. The government should also review it as farm mechanization can help getting better yield per animal, reducing wastage and attract more entrepreneurs in this business.
Meanwhile, Ashifa Riaz Fatyana, Provincial Minister of Punjab for Women Development while speaking at an event arranged in connection with the 150th year celebration said, “It is endearing to witness the presence of FrieslandCampina’s knowledge-based value system being applied throughout the country. It has been empowering dairy farmers and equipping them with best global practices, especially our enterprising female farmers, thus facilitating them in terms of self-sustenance and their economic well-being,” she added.
“FrieslandCampina’s 150 years of heritage combines deep knowledge, cultured tradition, understanding rooted in experience, and the very best of technology to impact millions of lives, every day. This combined with our ‘grass to glass’ ethos, delivers an unparalleled value proposition which aligns interests across our entire stakeholder ecosystem, and solidifies our place as an industry leader,” said Sania Sattar – Head of Corporate Communications & Sustainability at FrieslandCampina Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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