Nestlé Zimbabwe is targeting to increase investment in the Nestlé Dairy Empowerment Scheme (NDES) towards increasing milk production.The move to increase milk output will help to increase capacity at the company’s factories. Nestlé cluster manager for Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi Mr Ben Ndiaye said the investment is aimed at reducing the importation of milk to boost local farmers and assist Government towards economic development.
“This year we want to extend our investment to support our farmers to grow the silage which is the major element in the cost of milk production, by doing this farmers will be able to reduce the cost of producing milk by 15 percent.
“Last year we decided to invest in the farming sector or in our total value chain in a bid to increase production through assisting the farmer to boost our capacity in the factory,” he said.
He however would not give the estimates for the proposed investments.
Mr Ndiaye said this while touring the Magura daily farm in Wedza, a project funded by Nestle Company as part of the company’s effort to increase milk production and quality at the farm.
Nestlé Zimbabwe embarked on the NDES in 2011 to assist the revival of the dairy industry in Zimbabwe after the country’s annual milk production dropped from a height of 260 million litres in 1992 to 38 million litres in 2008.
The milking herd also reduced in the same period from 200 000 to 28 000. Nestlé Zimbabwe had however already started assisting dairy farmers well before the launch of NDES.
The scheme entails importation and local sourcing of dairy heifers in calf to rebuild the dairy herd for both the large and medium scale commercial farmers contracted to supply raw milk to the Nestlé Factory.
The project was extended to small scale farmers in Chitomborwizi who have received 100 dairy cows in calf. The cows have now started producing milk for the Nestlé factory, with initial deliveries in December 2015 at 1 900 litres for the month, growing to 12 500 litres as at the end of March, 2016.
At this rate, by end of 2016, the small farmers will be delivering 48 000 litres per month to the Nestlé Factory.
“So this is major investment which we are undertaking this year to support our farmers.
“The other investment is that we want to strengthen our commercial capabilities by hiring 10 graduates which we are grooming to become the future commercial leaders of Nestlé in Zimbabwe and Malawi,” he added.
Last year the company invested $30 million in the refurbishment of its factory in an effort to increase production currently the group is not benefiting from the investment due to an increase in imported Cremora on the market.
He added that the group is targeting to revive the milk industry in Zimbabwe through assisting small dairy farmers and one of the biggest challenges which we are facing is the parallel import of Cremora.
“The production of milk has increased in Zimbabwe but the importation of milk is still continuing,” he said – BH24.