Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:16:07 +0000
By AARON CHIYANZO
ZAMBIA is lagging on a deficit of over 100 million litres of milk annually which would-be dairy farmers can take advantage of and contribute immensely to the Treasury in the form of taxes, says Dairy Association of Zambia (DAZ) policy officer Kapoche Mwale.
Mr Mwale said that only about 65 million litres of milk was supplied to the formal industry annually when Zambia had the capacity to produce 182 million litres.
He however explained that a larger part of the milk which was produced across the country was being lost into the informal sector with all the requisite health hazards.
Mr Mwale said that in as much as the milk in the informal sector was consumed in households, most of it went to waste.
He said that growth in the local dairy sector had been slow, but significant over the past 10 years with the number of smallholder dairy farmers currently standing at 5,065 from 1,500 in 2011.
Mr Mwale reiterated that the number of dairy farmers had the potential to grow with increased infrastructure development such as roads and milk collection centres to collect most of the raw milk.
He said that the dairy industry had the potential to process about 182 million litres of raw milk annually but that it was only supplied with about 65 million litres.
Mr Mwale pointed out that even at that low supply, the dairy industry was contributing over K61 million in taxes to the Treasury and employed about 27, 000 people both directly and indirectly.
“The number of smallholder dairy producers is growing and is currently at 5,065 from 1,500 in 2011, although it could grow to 10, 000 with increased infrastructure development to collect most of the raw milk, thereby reducing reconstituted volumes.
“The industry milk intake from smallholder farmers increased from below 10 percent seven years ago to 20 percent in 2014,” he said.
Mr Mwale said that the existing milk processing plants were producing at far below their installed capacity and therefore increasing cost of production.
Meanwhile, Mr Mwale said that the industry was not utilising its potential because of the high cost of inputs.
He explained that feed prices constituted about 65 percent of the total production cost in the milk production sector.
