BANGKOK, Thailand—The Philippines has finally cracked open the market for mozzarella cheese in Singapore, with a local dairy-carabao farm producing fresh milk and other dairy products exporting its first 200 tons of Mozzarella di Bufala (buffalo mozzarella) cheese to Singapore starting this week.

Danilo V. Fausto, president of the Talavera, Nueva Ecija-based DVF Dairy Farm Inc., revealed at the sidelines of a “familiarization visit” by a 15-member Philippine delegation exploring cooperation in the dairy industry between Thailand and the Philippines here, that the demand for mozzarella cheese in Singapore is big, which will require him to expand operations.

Fausto is a member of the Philippine delegation, whose specialty is producing premium carabao milk. 

An investment banker by profession, Fausto founded a dairy -carabao cooperative in 1987 with a few dairy carabao, the Murrah buffalo. The cooperative grew over the years, and its membership expanded in six other Nueva Ecija towns, benefitting small farmers who own at least two to three dairy carabao.

 According to Fausto, president and national chairman of the Dairy Confederation of the Philippines and the Talavera Dairy Cooperative Inc., a small group of restaurants in Singapore is requiring the DVF Dairy Farm Inc. to supply 200 tons to 300 tons of mozzarella cheese a week, but his farm could only produce 200 tons to 300 tons a month.