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Egypt, Brazil and Lithuania were admitted membership of the International Dairy Federation at the IDF 95th General Assembly in Mexico City.

The admission of Egypt comes at a time when the Egyptian dairy sector is going through progressive structuring with new operators arriving on the market. In the meantime, there is a shared concern by local authorities and the industry to supply the national market with safe and quality milk. Increasing competition among more operators is now boosting dairy consumption and innovation.

“I am pleased that Egypt and IDF are going to start a collaboration in the region of North Africa, and particularly in the dynamic Egyptian market, where the dairy sector is growing in importance, providing to consumers access to healthy and nutritious dairy products,” said Christian Robert, IDF Director General.

“IDF promotes high quality control methods so that dairy products meet all regulatory standards before they are released to the local market. I am convinced that the assistance that IDF provides through its network of leading scientific experts will be a key factor in the development of the Egyptian dairy sector.”

Brazil’s membership increases the IDF’s presence in Latin Americaalongside Mexico. “One of the main challenges for the Brazilian dairysector is the respect of international quality standards in order to beable to be competitive,” said Robert.

“Benchmarking against other operators of the sector can contribute tofurther improvements and to the successful development of Brazilianpositions. The IDF network will provide Brazil with a new internationalexposure, which will stimulate progress for the Brazilian dairy sectorin today’s very competitive environment. There will be moreopportunities for Brazil, which will definitely have a role to play onthe global scene.”

Lithuanian National committee member Saulius Savickis said: “Dairyproducts and exports of dairy products have become an importantactivity for our national economy. For this reason, we follow closelythe development of international standards to ensure that the nationalregulations are aligned with them. We are very much looking forward tojoining IDF to benefit from IDF experience and expertise in this field.

“Analyticalmethods are of utmost importance to our country and our experts willcontinue to be actively involved in the IDF Analytical Weeks. We arealso very much interested in gathering advice on practicalimplementation of international standards and regulations.”