By Almot Maqolo
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s raw milk production in the first 3 months to March rose 20% to 21.45 million litres compared to 17.83 million litres reported in the same period last year backed by availability of grazing pastures, official data shows.
Milk supply remains constrained by the high cost of stock feeds. However, the government launched command silage, a welcome initiative intended to support dairy farmers grow their own silage in order to improve stock feed availability and reduce cost of milk production. This is poised to further improve milk production.
Dairy farmers produced 79.6 million litres in 2021, representing a 4% increase from 76.69 million litres produced in 2020. This was against annual demand of about 120 million litres.
Latest figures from the Ministry of Agriculture dairy services department show that milk intake by processors rose 20% to 19.26 million liters in Q1 2022 from 16.05 million liters in the comparative period. Retailed milk by producers increased by 26% to 2.19 million liters from 1.73 million liters in the same period last year.
“Despite the poor rains on the cropping side the pasture and water supply for drinking for livestock is good,” Dairy Services Unit officer in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Settlement Addmore Waniwa told this reporter.
In March, raw milk production was 23.53% higher to 7.33 million liters compared to 5.93 million liters recorded in the same month last year. Also it was up 9 when compared to February 2022 milk production but 1% lower to January milk output.
February output at 6.73 million liters, represents a 9% decline from January output of 7.38 million liters. So far January output is the highest.
Average milk production for the first quarter of 2022 stood at 7.15 million litres against 5.94 million litres in Q1 2021.
Previously there has been a slow growth, generally in both dairy animal numbers and milk production from both the large scale commercial and smallholder sectors in the last decade owing to loss of valuable genetic material.
Milk output is projected to reach 95 million litres in 2022. The government was supporting the dairy sector in the national Budget by introducing a 5% duty on dairy imports to capacitate the Dairy Recovery Programme.
While the country does not produce enough milk, the excess demand is being met through powdered milk imports mainly from neighboring South Africa by processors under a duty-free quota system to approved importers.
In November 2021, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube noted that government support to the dairy sector over the years has triggered a positive response towards development of the dairy industry. This comes as investment across the value chain amounted to US$20 million.
Under the livestock and recovery growth plan, milk production is intended to rise from the obtaining annual production of 79.9 million litres to 150 litres, and increase the dairy herd from 39 980 to 60 000 by 2025.
About US$75 million is required to fully revitalise the sector.
