New yoghurt plant opens in Thimpu

Thimphu: With Nu 5 million assistance from the government of India, the livestock department has established a yoghurt plant in the capital to carter to a growing market demand and to promote the idea of such a business in the locality.

Located opposite the Handicraft Emporium in Thimphu, the plant was established to encourage the idea of small-scale businesses, according to livestock officials.

Chief livestock officer Dr Karma Tenzing said that the milk booth at Chubachu milk sales counter buys about 300 litres of milk everyday from farmers. “The idea came after a lot of milk remained unsold,” said the officer.

The plant will be given to private business or a farmer’s group after the department runs it for a year. “Farmers should pick up the idea and start a similar business,” he said.

The department, to scope out the viability of such a plant, conducted a study and found that Bhutan imported yoghurt from other countries. “Yoghurts are imported from Bangkok and India, so we wanted to start with a simple plain yoghurt plant and gradually come up with a bigger one,” said the chief livestock officer.

Keeping in mind the importance of a clean environment, the yoghurt plant will also be implementing the “buy back scheme” where plastic cups in which the yoghurt is sold will be reused.

“We don’t want yoghurt cups with our logo to be seen littered all over, so we’ll be fixing a price and will buy back the plastic cups for recycling,” said Dr Karma Tenzing.

The plant is also aimed at encouraging farmers around Thimphu to market their milk in the city.

Dr Karma Tenzing said that farmers will be registered to maintain product quality and supply chain. Milk until now was paid Nu 35 per litre and brought from as far as Paro with subsidised transportation charges, according to livestock department officials.

The yoghurt plant, which also function as a dairy sales counter, was inaugurated on September 20.