Dairy: Nigeria Intensifies Talks With Denmark’s Arla Foods

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In line with the government’s plan on food security, Nigeria has begun talks with one of the world’s largest dairy companies, Arla Foods, on the development of the dairy sector in Nigeria.


Speaking during a tour of Arla Foods dairy farms in Denmark, the senior technical adviser to the minister of agriculture, Dr Andrew Kwasari, said that a partnership with Arla, and knowledge sharing, will help empower Nigerian farmers who face multiple challenges with logistics, infrastructure, organization, quality and productivity.

“We could definitely see Arla as a partner to help build a sustainable dairy industry in Nigeria from the very beginning based on its globally proven concept of ‘dairy enterprise of the farmers, for the farmers, by the farmers.’”

Denmark’s minister of foreign affairs, Kristian Jensen, had in February this year signed a letter of intent with the Nigerian minister of agriculture to cooperate on the development of the local agriculture sector in Nigeria.

While welcoming the Nigerian delegation during the tour the senior vice president and head of Arla Foods for sub-Saharan Africa, Steen Hadsbjerg, stated that Nigeria is key to Arla’s ability to sell its farmowners’ milk in West Africa in the future.

“We understand that developing the Nigerian local dairy industry to create a sustainable value chain that contributes to food security, local jobs and prosperity are important issues for the government. The Nigerian government welcomes companies and initiative that will help this development,” he said.

He noted that the visit would help in understanding the challenges in developing a sustainable dairy sector in Nigeria and how Arla can most effectively contribute to the solution. Hadsbjerg further said that it would help Arla “share our knowledge and experience about how our farmowners have organised and developed their value chain. The result will benefit Arla’s opportunities whilst ensuring the good development of the dairy market in Nigeria for the benefit of all parties.”

Nigeria spends $1.3 billion dollars on dairy imports. The Nigerian government’s target is to double the milk production over the next three to four years so as to meet up with domestic consumption and export.