Githunguri farmers stuck with 4m litres of milk, blame imports

Dairy farmers from Kiambu County have complained cheap imports from neighbouring countries are hurting their earnings.

The farmers affiliated to Githunguri Dairy Farmers Cooperative Society said their milk is unable to compete with imports due to the high cost of living being experienced in the country, which has pushed the prices of commodities up.

Chairperson George Kinyanjui said the influx of cheap imports has driven the prices of milk down, eating into their returns.

“As processors, we can’t afford to sell our milk as cheap as our neighbors due to the high cost of animal feeds, electricity cost and high taxation. Our processing costs have gone up by 40 per cent,” he said.

The cooperative that produces Fresha brand bought 92,188,882 litres of milk from farmers this year compared to 87,905,090 litres last year.

Its turnover rose from Sh10 billion to Sh10.5 billion, an increase occasioned by the long rains that eased accessibility to fodder.

But Kinyanjui said the co-operative has been unable to sell all the milk and it is stuck with a stock of more than four million litres in its stores due to slow sales.

The cooperative has, however, been exploring external markets and has exported 414,000 litres to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen for Sh43.5 million.

“We have other markets we are exploring such as DRC Congo and some West African countries. This year, farmers were paid Sh49.3 per litre this year and we hope to improve it in the near future,” he said.

The co-operative is also engaging exporters with plans to sell them some of its milk for export.

Addressing farmers during an annual general meeting at Githunguri stadium, Kinyanjui announced dividends amounting to Sh35,870,549, translating to Sh1.15 per share.

The cooperative also sold 7,056 litres of Fresha bottled water per day, an increase from the 6,471 litres sold last year.

The chairperson told farmers they are owed Sh215 million by retail outlets. This year, it bagged an award for being the best in value addition and innovation during Ushirika Day.

The cooperative’s supervisory committee chairperson Joseph Karanja said its membership has risen to 28,126 members up from 27,607 last year.

It has 88 milk collection points, 13 cooling centres, 59 stores and one warehouse, collecting 252,572 litres of milk every day.

“Good animal husbandry has seen delegations even from outside the country visiting for benchmarking,” Karanja said.

Veronica Kimani, a farmer, said they are not getting value for their hard work as most of their earnings go towards buying feeds.

“Keeping dairy cattle is hard work and the high taxes make it impossible for the cooperative to pay better prices”.

James Kagiri urged the government to look into the quality of animal feeds in the market and help weed out substandard brands that lower milk production.

“My cows used to produce 30 litres per day. Now they produce 20 litres,” Kagiri said.

They also urged President William Ruto to honour his pledge of delivering milk coolers to the cooperative to facilitate preservation of milk at the collection points as he had promised last year when he visited the area.