HARARE: Milk output from local dairy farmers went up from 54,7 million litres produced in 2013 to 55,5 million litres in 2014.MILK production has failed to match demand despite a 1,5 percent increase in production last year, forcing the country to resort to imports.
Milk output from local dairy farmers went up from 54,7 million litres produced in 2013 to 55,5 million litres in 2014.But this remained far below annual demand of around 120 million litres.
The African Development Bank’s Zimbabwe Monthly Economic Review reports that nearly 90 percent of production in both years was absorbed by the milk processors while the balance was reserved for retail.
“While there are efforts by the dairy farmers to boost the dairy herd, which is currently standing at 26 000 cows, it will take a while before Zimbabwe regains its status of the 1990s when the dairy herd was 104 483 in 1994. During that time, annual milk production reached 300 million litres,” the report said.
Challenges facing the sector include competition from cheap imports from the region, especially from South Africa.These imports could negatively affect the country’s efforts to revive production to between 140 million litres to 150 million litres annually.
Also, high input costs such as the high maize price and other stock feed inputs have also negatively affected the industry.Large scale farmers previously dominated the sub sector and, at peak in 1990, the sub sector produced 262 million litres of milk.
But after the land reform programme displaced a lot of them, milk production dropped to a low of 34 million litres in 2009.
In the small scale sector, reports show that the small scale dairy farmers in the dairy sector are currently clustered around 35 milk collection centres in five provinces: Manicaland, Mashonaland, Masvingo, Midlands, and Matabeleland South.
However, milk production went down because most small scale dairy farmers largely get milk from local cattle breeds which, as a consequence of their low genetic milk yield potential, are unsuitable for commercial dairy farming, because they find exotic breeds expensive in terms of management.
“Productivity has declined over the years from an average peak of 25 litres per day to only 10 litres. High costs and erratic supply of stock feeds, which often have to be imported to meet the local demand, are some of the challenges affecting milk production. The low production levels are also explained by a decline in the number of registered players, who used to be 338 at the peak of the milk industry but are currently about 223.
The dairy industry, which has an installed capacity of more than 400 million litres, is currently operating at 45 percent capacity utilisation. Efforts to support farmers to increase milk productivity are needed if the dairy sector is to be a viable sector,” the Zimbabwe Monthly Economic Review report said.
