By Aloysious Kasoma
Milk producers in Uganda are calling for more dairy suppliers to join the market and close the demand gap in the local market.
Speaking to the New Vision at the East African Business Expo on Sunday, Rachael Arinaitwe, the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Milk, said that investors put a lot of money in the production plants but the market has a few suppliers.
“We invest a lot of money in high technology. We need more farmers to supply milk from across the country even if you have one cow to cover up the local demand and then we export. Apparently we work with some in the cattle corridor,” she said.
Arinaitwe also noted that, consumption statistics come down due to the cost of production and taxing at every stage. The country aims at taking it to 20 billion litres. Uganda’s dairy sector is now valued at US$3.8 billion while the export portion of brings in US$106.2m per year.
“The house hold intake is down, this is caused by taxation and the constraints are paid for by the end user of the products,” she explained
It is noted that the national per capita milk consumption in Uganda is still very low, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.
The annual dairy performance report for FY 2021 by Dairy Development Authority (DDA) shows that Sh382.2b was earned from dairy exports during the reviewed financial year (2021) compared to Sh344.2b in FY 2020, an increase of 11%.
