milk |
The ongoing drought experienced in many parts of Uganda has hit milk supplies hard, pushing up prices.
Industry players
say supplies have dropped by as much as a quarter and that rising farm
gate prices are forcing processors of milk and milk products to mark up
their own prices.
The top three
players -- Jesa Farm Dairy, which produces Jesa Milk, Brookside Diaries
which makes Fresh Diary and Premier Dairies, which produces Mega milk --
have had to adjust their prices upwards in recent weeks.
In most urban
centres, a litre of processed and pasteurised milk is selling for about
Ush3,000 ($0.94) from Ush2,400 ($0.73) in November last year when prices
began rising. Stockouts have also been reported in both big and small
outlets.
Milk products
Edwin Katende, a distribution manager at Jesa Farm Dairy, said that they were unable to meet the milk demand of their customers.
"We cannot even meet the needs of all our customers due to low production; we are now forced to outsource," said Mr Katende.
Moses Byaruhanga,
the director of Premier Dairies, said that milk supply was down to about
a quarter of the farm's usual production.
"Many adjustments
have been made and as the price of milk goes up on the farm, we are
forced to increase the price to suppliers," he said.
Jesa Farm Dairy and
Premier Dairies dominate the fresh milk retail market. Jesa has an
installed capacity of 80,000 litres while Premier's is between 15,000
and 20,000 litres. Uganda's annual milk production stands at about 2.2
billion litres.
Timothy Nkuruzinza,
a dairy farmer in Luwero district, said that the drought had affected
the supply of fodder used as animal feed, thereby affecting milk
production.
The effects of the
drought present a reality check for the country's underdeveloped animal
husbandry practices. The country depends largely on the open grazing
system, which is vulnerable to weather shocks.
According to Mr
Byaruhanga who is also a senior presidential advisor on political
affairs, recent intermittent rains have impacted on supplies. He said
that the rains may support some growth of fodder but are not enough to
rehydrate the cows.
"It could take up
to a month with more regular rains for the supplies to stabilise and the
prices to come down," said Mr Byaruhanga.
Efforts to get a
comment from the Dairy Development Authority on mitigation measures did
not succeed as junior officials who were present at their offices would
not comment.
Other food crops affected by the drought are maize, and matooke (banana), a common staple in Uganda.
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