The Sunday News
THE Umzingwane Dairy Association (UDA) has applied for a grant of $20 000 from a non-governmental organisation, SNV for the purchase of equipment for its milk processing plant at Umzingwane Milk Centre.
Umzingwane Milk Centre is the brainchild of rural farmers drawn from around Umzingwane District and is situated at Mawabeni Business Centre in Matabeleland South.
It is home to 45 dairy farmers although only 35 are active.
UDA chairperson Mrs Sheila Lupuwana said in an effort to turn the centre into a full-fledged business entity they had enlisted the services of a business advisory organisation, the Institute for Rural Technology to craft a five-year strategic plan.
“We realised that the way we were operating the association was rather primitive thus we approached IRT to write us a business project proposal. We intend to use this five-year business plan to grow our dairy enterprise.
“We have also used the same document to apply for a $20 000 grant from SNV. It will give us 75 percent of the funds and we will put in 25 percent of the total amount. We intend to use the loan for the purchase of equipment to be used at the centre,” Mrs Lupuwana said.
The association intends to replace its obsolete milk processing plant and coldroom it has been using since it started operations in 2001.
It is also looking forward to purchasing refrigerated trucks for collecting milk from distribution points to the milk centre.
“We intend to purchase a state-of-the-art milk processing plant from Israel, which will produce sour milk, yoghurt, ice cream and dairy juices. The one which we have is now obsolete and outdated. We will also acquire a new coldroom locally.
“We also want to buy three refrigerated-scooters for collecting milk from various collection points as most of our members have been experiencing transport challenges to move the milk to the centre,” Mrs Lupuwana said.
The centre resumed operations early last year after shutting down for two years as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority had cut off power supplies after failure by the association to settle a $1 700 bill.
However, Mrs Lupuwana said the association had made tremendous strides towards turning the centre into a profitable entity.
At the beginning of the year SNV seconded experts from Matopo Research Station to assist UDA members in fodder production as well as artificial insemination.
The experts are still conducting the programmes to date.
Milk deliveries at the centre have risen by more than 100 percent from just above 1 000 litres last year to an average of 3 500 litres per month.
The centre is now producing about 2 500 packets of 500 millilitres of sour milk a month up from the more than 1 000 packets produced during the same period last year.
It has also increased its production of pasteurised milk from 200 packets to about 500 packets per month.
