Pascal Dukuzumuremyi pays more milk today than he did two months ago.
Gasabo District resident is one among many who feel the pinch of limited milk supply. Officials blame drought effects on dairy farm output.
“I have to pay Rwf500 on the same quantity of milk I used to buy at Rwf300. This is increasing my cost of living, and limiting my ability to save. But, because milk is my favorite drink, I accept to incur such a cost,” he told The New Times.
Prices for unprocessed freshmilk have risen from Rwf400 per unit about two months back to Rwf600 now in some parts Kigali.
Workers on duty at a Gicuimbi District milk collection centre Photo: Courtesy.
Inyange Industries Ltd. processed fresh milk, the price for a half-litre (or 500ml), pack rose by 60% to Rwf500 to Rwf800 in some areas of Kigali.
Some retailers said The New Times that they are buying a box containing a dozen half-litre milk packs of Inyange milk at Rwf8,000 from distributors, up from Rwf5,000 previously.
“Apart from the milk being expensive, the supply is so limited that sometimes we lack it,” one trader told The New Times on condition of anonymity.
Anita Umuhire (Deputy Managing Director at Inyange), said the contrary. The New Times that the firm did not increase prices of its milk, pointing out that a box of a dozen half-litre milk packs goes for Rwf4,700 to distributors.
She said that the average end consumer should not pay more then Rwf500 per half-litre milk package.
However, she stated that some traders may be profiting off the shortage in milk supply by speculating prices to increase their profits.
“Some traders are inflating Inyange milk prices to get higher proceeds,” she said, pointing out that prices are influenced by the forces of demand and supply,” she said.
Supply and production of milk drop
Solange Uwituze The Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Board (RAB), Deputy Director General for Animal Resources Development, told The New Times that the observed shortage of milk supply is mainly attributable to the drought (characterised by the scarcity of forage and water for dairy cattle).
She stated that the drought period can have a significant effect on milk production, particularly in Eastern Province.
According to her, current data on milk aggregation show that the average milk quantity collected from 15 Nyagatare milk collection centres (MCCs), Nyagatare (a major dairy shed in the country) has dropped from 80,000 to 100,000 litres per hour during the rainy seasons (March-April) down to 39,900 (July).
This is exactly the same issue as Gahiga gashumba, chairperson of Nyagatare dairy farmers’ union, who revealed to The New Times that their milk production fell by around 70% because of drought.
Umuhire stated that Inyange Industries was receiving 80,000 Liters of milk per day, but this drastically decreased to 20,000 Liters per day during the dry season.
“Our milk supply has reduced by 75 percent. That is why the impact has been obviously felt on the market,” she said.
Ensuring sustainability
Inyange Industries is setting up a powdered milk factory in Nyagatare District, with a capacity to process 500,000 liters of milk per day. Umuhire says that Rwf30billion has been invested in the factory to date.
RAB data indicates that Rwanda produced an average 2.4 million litres of dairy milk per day by 2021. It is sold largely unprocessed, with only a small percentage being processed by dairy industrial units.
Uwituze said that important efforts to increase milk production even during the dry season are being deployed “and we are confident that the demand of the milk powder plant shall be met”.
In order to address forage scarcity, Uwituze said that dairy farmers have been mobilised for the forage cultivation and storage in preparation for drought, adding that the Government subsidises the costs of forage seeds.
She indicated that 4,558 Ha of forage had been cultivated in the fiscal year 2002/022.
Uwituze stated that water scarcity is being addressed by enhancing access to water at dairy farms, particularly Nyagatare milk shed.
These include, among others, the support to dairy farmers for acquiring dam-sheets for water storage on a subsidised scheme, and the construction of boreholes to enhance farmer’s accessibility to water [for cattle consumption].
For Gashumba, “there is a need for more efforts to ensure availability of fodder and water for cows for sustainable milk production.”
Uwituze stated that the possibility of increasing milk collection and distribution in other milksheds is being considered.
It is in this regard that feeder roads in Gishwati milk shed are being rehabilitated to allow a smooth collection of milk.
Based on the capacity of the existing infrastructures she stated that rehabilitation of Gishwati feeder routes will allow for the addition of 67,500 litres milk per day.
She noted that this will be a rapid increase in production as Nyagatare’s milk powder plant is currently under construction.
editor@newtimesrwanda.com
Source: rnewtimes
