With funding provided by the Government of Italy through the UNDG Iraq Trust Fund, and in kind contribution by the Government of Iraq trough the Ministry of Industry and Minerals this 24 months project will assist the Government of Iraq in the process of rehabilitating and revitalizing the country’s economic infrastructure and promoting industrial development particularly by elaborating a sector development strategy for the dairy sector in the northern provinces of Iraq and providing support for the rehabilitation of the Mosul dairy plant.  Apart from the direct employment within the Mosul dairy plant the project has a multiplier effect creating new jobs in the transportation and retail chain in the long run as well as encouraging farmers to increase the milk production.

Enhancing national capacities for quality and quantity of milk production in Iraq is an important step in replacing imported food by local produce.

In order to become a competitive unit besides the technology in use and the well trained staff, the basic infrastructure of the processing facilities also have to fit the purpose. The project will address this issue by provision of support for the rehabilitation of the Mosul dairy plant in order to improve milk (especially cheese) processing and to establish a viable and reliable partner for dairy farmers.

The Programme strategy is based on two pillars:

• Capacity building:
  • Institutional capacity building involving staff from Ministry of Industry and Minerals (MoIM) and Ministry of Agriculture (MoA ) as well as regional authorities, staff from the State Company for Dairy Products (SCDP) and Universities
  • Human resources development,  involving staff from private and public sector as well as farmers

and

• Technology transfer:
  • Facilities rehabilitation according to international standards allowing the application of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) conform processing
  • Investment of new processing lines