Govt satisfied with dairy industry growth

23 Oct, 2016 - 00:10 0 Views
Govt satisfied with dairy industry growth

The Sunday News

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister responsible for livestock Paddy Zhanda

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister responsible for livestock Paddy Zhanda

Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Farming Reporter
THE Government has expressed satisfaction at the growth of the dairy industry amid revelations that the country’s milk producers are likely to achieve the projected target of producing more than 100 million litres per year by 2019.

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister responsible for livestock Paddy Zhanda said the growth in the dairy industry was phenomenal and encouraging.

“I’m very proud to say that’s (dairy) a sector that has registered a growth of nearly 18 percent with milk yield coming from 54 million to about 60 million litres a year, that’s wonderful growth,” he said.

At its peak in the 1990s the dairy sector had a herd of 122 000 cows and produced about 250 million litres of milk per year.

“Our projection is that by 2019 we should be self-sufficient in terms of having to produce as a country 100 to 120 million litres a year which is annual consumption a year. Although those figures in terms of consumption and production might change, in terms of the growth pattern on how we had projected it’s on the right direction,” said Deputy Minister Zhanda.

Zimbabwe’s dairy industry, which has received investment to the tune of $22 million in processing plants and machinery between 2014 and 2016, is poised for further growth as the Government and several industry players are pressing ahead with a comprehensive, all-inclusive national milk production programme to ensure self-sufficiency by 2020.

To this end, Zimbabwe will soon launch a five-year strategy to make the country self-sufficient in milk amid hopes that the dairy sector will ramp up production and target 200 million litres of milk per year by 2020.

“The companies have done a wonderful job, particularly the three big companies. They are really bullish in terms of their recapitalisation programmes, which is a good sign. In actual fact, I want to take this opportunity to say here is an opportunity for those that want to be in dairy, that they will be producing a product that is required by the market without any problem about marketing. Any milk that is produced in the country will be having a ready market and that’s precisely what we want,” Deputy Minister Zhanda said.

Last month a public-private sector partnership programme — Dairy Resuscitation Programme imported 400 heifers in calf (pregnant) from South Africa at an estimated cost of $540 000.

The funding was mobilised through Government’s Dairy Resuscitation Fund, which raises its money from a 10 percent levy on imported milk products.

Early this year, Zimbabwe introduced a battery of measures under the gazetted Statutory Instrument 64, which outlawed the importation of a range of basic commodities including finished dairy products.

Despite facing stiff resistance and an outcry, the measures are saving jobs and dairy industries which had come under extreme risk of being pushed out of business.

Local dairy industry players welcomed the move, arguing that the local industry has the capacity to meet the country’s dairy requirements.

@DNsingo

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