By Delicious Mathuthu
Harare, Zimbabwe – The Zimbabwean dairy sector has witnessed significant growth in recent years, with national milk production increasing by 170% in the last 15 years, from 37 million liters in 2009 to 99.8 million liters in 2023.
The growth, however, is amidst challenges such as high production costs, limited climate-proofing facilities and poor animal genetics, which continue to hinder the sector’s desired progress.
Speaking at the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF) 10th Annual General Meeting in Nyanga on Wednesday (24/07/2024), Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development, Hon. Davis Marapira, highlighted the government’s efforts to address these challenges to return to yester-year levels of production.
“We have made progress in growing our national milk volume, but we need to work hard on improving our efficiency at farm and processing levels,” he said.
“At peak production in the early 90s, Zimbabwe had a 42, 000 milking herd producing 260 million liters of milk. This went down at the turn of the millennia when we transformed our agricultural landscape.
“Today we are witnessing results of various Government-led livestock sector interventions in our quest to transform our dairy sector. Efforts to grow the sector have seen national milk production grow by 170% from the country’s lowest volume of 37 million liters in 2009 to 99.8 million liters in 2023.
“In addition to this growth, the first half of 2024 have seen production grow by an average of 21% when comparing with the milk produced during the same period in 2023,” Minister Marapira said.
The government has implemented various initiatives to support the dairy sector, including the Presidential Silage Scheme and the Dairy Revitalization Fund, he said.
Hon. Marapira, however, acknowledged that more needs to be done to address the high cost of production, which is currently around 60 cents per liter, making Zimbabwean milk uncompetitive in the regional market.
“We have made progress in growing our national milk volume but now that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area is now upon us, we need to work hard on improving our efficiency at farm and processing levels.
“The cost of growing raw milk in Zimbabwe is already very high due to high cost of feed, erratic supply of electricity (farmers end up using expensive generators for milking and cooling) and drugs.
“Our cost of raw milk is about 60 cents per litre and is much higher than in other regional countries with South Africa at 35 cents, Zambia 37 cents and Malawi 25 cents, making the Zimbabwean price very uncompetitive.
“In light of AfCTA, we need to urgently improve so that our products can compete with regional and continental ones,” Hon. Marapira said.
The ZADF has called for a review of the Value Added Tax regulations, which have increased the cost of milk production and affected the growth of the dairy herd in the country.
Minister Marapira assured the association that the government is engaging with key stakeholders to address the concerns and ensure the sector’s competitiveness.
He said the high cost of production, “particularly feed which now accounts for over 70-80% of the cost of production, high cost of borrowing to grow the sector, limited climate proofing facilities, irrigation and pasture development, limited mechanisation & logistics issues, as well as poor animal genetics and disease prevalence amongst the small-scale dairy farmers,” are still a big challenge.
Despite the challenges, the dairy sector remains a critical component of Zimbabwe’s agro-based economy, supporting government’s National Development Strategy (NDS1) and Vision 2030, he said.
Government said it is committed to creating an enabling environment and allocating resources to support the sector’s growth.
“In view of the strategic nature of the dairy industry and the threats under AfCTA, the Government through the National Competitiveness Commission is conducting a Dairy Value Chain Competitiveness analysis, so as to identify challenges impinging on competitiveness and proffer evidence-based recommendations.
“The dairy farming sector is not exculpated from the high cost of inputs such as stock feeds….
“The milk primary producers are now focusing on on-farm fodder production and feed formulations as a cost minimization strategy.
“For the success of such strategy, the primary milk producers require the Government and other private players to create an enabling and supportive dairy specific model,” Hon. Marapira said.
The ZADF’s 10th Annual General Meeting brought together stakeholders from the dairy value chain to discuss the sector’s progress and challenges.
The association’s determination and drive were praised by Hon. Marapira, who urged stakeholders to continue working in unity to address the sector’s challenges.
