Dairy company |
Little prepared me
for what to expect when Vital Tomosi's Dairy (VTD), popularly known for
the MilkMan brand, hosted the media at their factory in Rushere,
Kiruhura district, on June 10.
The facility, which
is a joint venture between Vital Capital Fund and Tomosi's Farm, was
unveiling the newest product, Long Life Milk, to supplement MilkMan
yoghurt it launched six months ago.
Long Life Milk,
which comes in a one-litre pack, joins the competition of existing
Ultra-high temperature (UHT) processed brands from companies such as
Jesa, Brookside and Paramount, among others.
While touring the
expansive facility, Eyal Jonas, the MilkMan chief executive officer,
said it took the company four years to set up the $13m facility in
Uganda with the first two for research and understanding the market and
the other two for setting up the factory.
At the moment, the
state-of-the-art factory has two production lines, one for yoghurt and
another for UHT milk, and processes up to 50,000 liters of milk per day.
As part of the tour, The Observer visited a waste water treatment
facility.
Most companies that
operate in Uganda have not put in place proper waste management and
disposal facilities and because of this, there is disease outbreak in
the community and other problems such as contamination of products at
the factories.
COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION
VTD employs
hundreds of Rushere residents with many of them working in the packaging
department. There are also several tractor drivers, cleaners, machine
operators, security guards and farmers who have all benefitted from this
project. There are even some veterinary doctors hailing just a few
kilometres from the factory.
During the tour of
the nearby community, The Observer talked to Jackson Muhumuza, a farmer,
who said the factory has changed business
in the area. "We used to walk
long distances to sell our milk to middlemen that used to cheat us," he
said. "But now we have a ready market to supply the milk at good
prices."
Jones reiterated
the company's goal of enriching lives while providing good quality dairy
products on the market. "This project is a perfect example of how
financial profit and positive social purpose can come together to
benefit both investors and local communities. When fully implemented, we
will further improve the income of small hold farmers, establish
distribution of quality dairy products to the region, improve the food
security condition, reduce costs for consumers, and of course return
profit to our investors. This is impact investing."
GRIM OUTLOOK
According to 2016
figures from Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), the dairy industry is
largely unorganized with the presence of a large number of small-scale
dairy farmers who contribute 80 percent to the overall milk production.
Out of the total
raw milk production of 2.8 billion litres in 2015 across the nation,
only 40 per cent was consumed in processed form such as cheese, butter,
milk powder and yoghurt. Additionally, around 20 per cent of raw milk
gets wasted due to lack of proper storage facilities.
Hopefully, that
wastage will reduce thanks to new players such as MilkMan, who have put
in place large scale production systems and advanced processes to ensure
that the dairy by-products are properly preserved and transported from
the farm to the market.
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