By Irma Janauskaitė, LRT TV, LRT.lt.

One of Saudi Arabia’s largest food and retail groups, BinDawood, is considering investing in Lithuania’s dairy industry, potentially by building a new processing plant or acquiring a stake in an existing Lithuanian dairy company.

The prospect of a major new investor comes as Lithuania’s dairy sector faces a declining number of farms and dairy cows, with farmers complaining that low milk purchase prices often fail to cover production costs.

Eimantas Bičius, director of the Lithuanian Milk Producers Association, said Lithuania has one of the lowest milk purchase prices in the European Union.

“Compared with the EU, we are not a major milk producer. The Netherlands produces roughly as much milk in a month as we do in a year,” Bičius said.

The number of dairy cows in Lithuania fell by about 2,000 last year alone, while farmers have been closing farms after years of low prices.

Read more: LRT.LT