Clean vs 'Dirty' Milk or Big Business vs Small Farmers

Fears that the recently launched Safe Milk Campaign by the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) and leading dairy processing firms could put as many as 350,000 people out of employment, besides undermining most of the gains the sector has made since it was liberalised, emerged last week. According to industry players the Ksh10 million ($12,8205) campaign launched early this month jeopardises the incomes of another estimated 800,000 smallholder farmers who depend on the sector for their livelihood.

Kenya Dairy Board managing director Machira Gichohi said recently that the campaign was necessitated by persistent incidence of adulterated milk. Mr Gichohi pointed out that small-scale traders dilute milk with water, wheat or cassava flour, or margarine to increase the quantity of ware.

It is a position supported by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR) and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which want the sector streamlined.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in Central Province alone, one of the leading producers of milk (the others being Rift Valley, Western and the Coast), some 150 million litres of milk worth Ksh3 billion ($38.4 million) went to waste last year. The glut pushed down the price of milk, which in turn adversely affected both smallholder and large-scale producers.

The glut, Dr Wilson Nguyo, a senior researcher at Egerton University's Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, said last week, does not augur well for the dairy sector. Consequently, the organisations want the requirement by the KDB that traders be licensed to guard against adulteration of milk.

The campaign by KDB and the non-governmental organisations follows the government's initiative to revamp the dairy sector through the recent re-acquisition of the Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) that collapsed in 1998 because of high cost of inputs, mismanagement and embezzlement of dairy farmers' dues. Once KCC becomes fully operational, it is expected to push up the processing of milk from the current 800,000 litres per day to around two million litres per annum, if KCC's 300,000 litres per day processing capacity is regained.

In defending over 800,000 farmers who depend on dairy products for income, the four organisations argued that, since formalin (used in the preservation of dead bodies) is not destroyed by pasteurisation, processed milk presents the same risks to consumers if the preservative is used at all. Instead of subjecting smallholders and traders to stringent regulations through licensing, Dr Nguyo said the government should embark on milk producer education to improve the safety of milk and expand the range of products dairy farmers produce to raise their incomes. Like fellow researchers, he disagrees with the position taken by KDB and the other processors that small traders sell contaminated milk, which sometimes spreads diseases like brucellosis, typhoid, tuberculosis and diarrhoea.

In what they termed as a self-destructive commercial promotional gimmick through the Smallholder Dairy Project (SDP), the organisations poured cold water on the campaign saying that it is not backed up by any scientific findings. The SDP research found that small-scale traders do not use chemical preservatives. Dr Nguyo told The East Africa last week that recent research conducted by the institute found that hawkers depended on trust of milk buyers to sell milk. He added that at the small-holder and small trader levels, there is an element of self-regulation as 'small-scale traders and producers lack the technical know-how to adulterate milk. To do so would deny them the market. The most plausible explanation of the goings-on in the industry is the big players are scheming to shut out the small traders and small-holder producers so that they can have the market to themselves'.

The 30 or so licensed milk processors are also accused of sabotaging the industry through the importation of powdered milk, which is repackaged and sold in the local market in liquid form. Through their campaign, processors are also accused of plotting to bring the industry under their control so that the can fix the prices without involving primary producers.

80% of over 3.8 billion litres of milk produced in Kenya against a demand of 3.2 billion litres every year is consumed whole. According to experts, processors lack the technical and the financial capacity to buy and process all the milk produced in the country, which makes the informal market a viable alternative to processed milk that is sold mainly in urban areas.

It is estimated the dairy industry contributes about 2% of the country's gross domestic product, which at present stands at $10 billion. With 13 million grade dairy cows, eight million dairy goats and 800,000 dairy camels - a dairy herd estimated to be larger than that of the central and southern African (including Uganda and Tanzania) combined - IPAR says in separate research findings that the prospects of the local industry are bright. Against this backdrop the NGOs that coalesce under SDA project said 'The current campaign has caused much confusion amongst many consumers and is clearly an attempt to woo consumers to buy processed milk and disregard the raw milk market.'