eBusiness Weekly
BH24 Reporter
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s milk production increased by 14 percent in the second quarter to 17, 76 million litres from 15, 60 litres during the same period last year, figures from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement show.
The country requires 10 million litres of raw milk each month, but can only produce around half of its requirements, necessitating importation of the balance.
Although the country’s milk output is still significantly below set national demand, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) in its latest quarterly report says the increase is attributable to the implementation of the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF) Strategic Plan (2018 – 2022).
Notable was the availability of stock feeds, in view of a ‘fair’ agricultural season, and directly related the strategic plan, an improvement in the national dairy herd over the period under review.
“Despite the annual dairy output falling below the national requirement of 120 million litres, the increase in output was in line with the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers Strategic Plan (2018 – 2022), which aims to raise production levels to 130 million litres by 2022,” said the RBZ.
“The strategy envisages to increase milk output through increasing herd size, improving genetics, intensifying farmer training, and improving productivity per cow to 15 litres of milk of per day, from the current 12,5 litres per day, among other initiatives.”
On cumulative basis, the country’s milk output for the first half of the year stood at 34, 77 million litres, surpassing 2017’s performance of 31, 19 million litres by 11, 5 percent.
But output is still very low, a factor that may have contributed to low milk consumption in the country.
Zimbabwe’s low per capita consumption of milk at just 7 litres, is comparatively low alongside the 130 litres or 85 litres consumed in Kenya and Botswana respectively.
Private players play their part
The Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers Strategic Plan (2018 – 2022), as indicated previously, is aimed at increasing Zimbabwe’s milk production.
But a key role is also being played by private sector players.
For instance, Innscor Africa Holdings’ dairy subsidiary – Prodairy – earlier this year went into a strategic partnership with Sub Sahara Capital to establish Mafuro Farming.
The joint venture (JV) functions to reduce the cost of milk production in the country through intensive pasture development, with a project that is being financed by a $1, 6 million line of credit line.
The project entails backward integration into sustainable milk production, which saw the JV purchasing 400 heifers to help minimize the gap required to overturn the 5 million litres a month raw milk deficit in the country.
In terms of the project the heifers are expected to produce 240 000 litres of milk monthly.
Recently, Innscor chairman Addington Chinake said the company is targeting raw milk purchases of circa one million litres a month.
The Prodairy heifer project come in addition to Dairibord Zimbabwe’s long-standing heifer project.
With regards to milk production, Dairibord has for the past six years work at numerous initiatives to increase milk intake: namely the up-scaling productivity for the existing herd, attracting more farmers, and growing the herd through the Heifer Procurement Scheme.
