Government reduces purchase of fresh milk for Qali Warma

The Government of Dina Boluarte will reduce this year the purchase of fresh milk that is delivered to schoolchildren through Qali Warma to prioritize the delivery of “prepared drinks for immediate consumption”, or in other words, water with oatmeal flakes, as stated The Association of Dairy Farmers of Peru has warned (Agalep).

A new product

In 2019, this state program acquired 29 million liters of raw milk from national farmers; However, this year only 4.5 million liters will be purchased, 85% less, according to the union.

Which means that Of the five days that boys and girls from state institutions go to school, only one day will they receive dairyand the remaining four days they will be given a drink based on water and cereals.

This is viable thanks to the fact that, on December 27, 2023, the executive director of Qali Warma, Mariana Moreno Saavedra, signed resolution D000768-2023-MIDIS that approves the technical specifications of the new food called “prepared drinks for immediate consumption” and which will be effective from the school food service in 2024.

The document details that this product can be made from tuberslegumes, legumes, fruits, cerealsAndean beans, cocoa paste, among others, with the addition of water and sugar.

In this regard, Carlos Lozada, president of Agalep, commented to La República that it draws their attention that the nutritional qualities are not specified. “They are not supported by any national technical standard, their nutritional value is not announced, and the corresponding institutions such as the National Center for Food and Nutrition (Cenan), which depends on the Minsa, have not commented on the matter,” he said.

Likewise, Lozada highlighted that although the sheet indicates that the drink may contain maca, quinoa or kiwicha – whose nutritional value no one doubts – the problem is that they are two or three times more expensive than oats. And logically, suppliers will opt for the cheapest input when supplying Qali Warma through the Purchasing Program which was released on January 17.

In this way, Midis not only puts the health and development of schoolchildren at risk, but also directly impacts the income of livestock farmers, since they will only receive S/6.7 million of the S/44 million they were before. the pandemic.

“We demand the replacement of the ‘prepared drink for immediate consumption’ with national milkwhich can be provided by our small producers nationwide, who need to sell their product to support their families, and strengthen national food security,” he concluded.

They guarantee food

For its part, Qali Warma, through an informative note, has specified that the ration modality consists of the delivery of a drinkable product and a solid food, which “meet the nutritional contribution and the requirements established” in the specifications. techniques approved by said program.

In such a way that each breakfast or portion provides daily up to 25% of the total energy requirement, 12% protein, between 15 and 30% fat that schoolchildren require, as recommended by Cenan.

Less and less milk

In June 2023, through a Qali Warma resolution (RDE 375-2023-MIDIS/PNAEQW/DE), some 731,000 children, adolescents or pregnant mothers were authorized to be fed with the reconstituted dairy product – prepared from milk powder—which has meant that they have stopped buying fresh milk from national farmers, according to Agalep.

It should be noted that in those months the Gloria company, the main supplier of the State, indicated that it was short of fresh milk, which is why it could not produce evaporated milk, a product prepared from 100% fresh milk and that it was being sold in a purple jar.

Nowadays, Gloria is waiting for the Judiciary to resolve the lawsuit which he filed against the State so he could continue labeling his blue jar as evaporated milk.