Lovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
KWEKWE based milk processor, Dendairy has partnered the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers (ZADF) and the Zimbabwe Dairy Industrial Trust (ZDIT) to facilitate the importation of 400 dairy heifers.
Part of the herd has already been delivered as part of efforts to boost milk production.
The importation of the heifers is being done under the Dairy Revitalisation Programme where levies on imported dairy products are being channelled to increasing herd numbers by capacity building of small scale milk production centres.
Dendairy managing director, Darren Coetzee said that his company was facilitating the importation of heifers whose funds were realised through the levying of imported levying heifers while the ZADF and ZDIT identifies beneficiaries of the heifers, which will be paid in instalments over three to five years.
“There’s a Dairy Revitalisation Committee, which is an industry and government incentive where all the milk that coming into the country has been levied and the money has been put into a fund. That fund right now will bring 400 cows from South Africa and already recipients have been identified for 320 cows. These are mainly going to small scale dairy farmers with the hope that they graduate to medium scale because that’s where they become profitable,” he said.
The facility operates as a revolving fund, which will see the small scale dairy farmers benefiting for the next five years.
The Dendairy boss said if the current importation trend of dairy cows continues the country would soon be self sufficient in terms of milk production.
“Local processors would probably begin to supply the local market in a very short space of time. Probably next year you might see foreign dairy products being restricted even more,” he said.