EAC official seeks transformation of regional dairy sector

Dairy experts in East Africa have been challenged to transform the sector from subsistence to commercialisation to meet the growing demand.

This would ensure increased milk yields and income to the farmers for sale of dairy products, argued a senior official of the Arusha-based East African Community (EAC) Secretariat.

“There is need for increased efforts to develop, modernise and commercialise the dairy industry in the region”, said EAC deputy secretary general (Planning and Infrastructure) Dr Enos Bukuku.

Opening a meeting of heads of dairy regulatory bodies in the region on Wednesday, the deputy secretary-general noted that the sector currently contributes only five per cent of the EA Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“The demand for milk in the region is high, yet in some cases, surplus milk gets spoiled and does not reach the deficit areas”, he said.

He remarked that what the region needs was to improve milk collection cold chains so that milk can reach the market and farmers producing milk can fully reap from their efforts.

He said that milk should be processed to extended shelf life and the value chain is lengthened by processing milk into other milk-related products and by-products.

Dr Bukuku informed the meeting in Arusha, Tanzania that EAC was in the process of developing a regional livestock policy which will guide the sector operations on a wider scale.

The experts, meeting under the umbrella of the East African Dairy Regulatory Authorities Council (EADRC), are meeting to strategies on how to promote milk consumption in the region.

They also discussed trade in dairy products, regional dairy industry sanitary standards, improved milk production and access to markets.

EAC officials say the latest effort to enhance cooperation in the sector is anchored in Article 45 of the EAC Common Market Protocol which relates to agricultural production and food security.

According to a recent report by the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Diseases (AU-IBAR), milk consumption in EA has been low despite the large number of domestic animals.

Milk consumption in Kenya is about 90 litres per capita while in other EAC member countries; Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, the consumption is under 50 litres per person in a year.

The consumption rate recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) per person per year is 200 litres.

The report by the inter-governmental organisation said a large part of the food derived from livestock in the region, such as milk, was self-consumed and not marketed.

In Kenya and Tanzania, for instance, it is estimated that only 10 per cent of the milk produced by the livestock-herding Maasai communities is sold in the formal markets.

In the entire region, it is estimated that no more than 15 per cent of the milk produced is marketed through the formal markets.

The two-day meeting organised by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (Asareca), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the EAC Secretariat.

It aims at creating a favourable regional environment to promote the sector – which contributes approximately 5% of the EAC Gross Domestic Product – and to enhance its prominence and involvement with EAC policy making structures.