Munya steps in to cushion dairy farmers

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya during a meeting with farmers at the National Cereals and Produce Board’s in Eldoret on March 05, 2020. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• The Agriculture minister said that his ministry is reviewing certain reforms in the dairy sector which will see that farmers paid according to the quality of their milk.

By ONYANGO K’ONYANGO
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By BARNABAS BII
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The government will not allow cheap milk imports to flood the country's market in raft of reforms meant to protect local farmers as well as revive the dairy sector.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya while disclosing the reforms during a meeting with farmers in the North Rift region on Thursday said the importation of the milk has worked to the disadvantage of the farmers and the government will take implement measures on those who will be found importing the cheap milk.

“We will not allow the importation of the cheap milk to inflict pain on our dairy sector and I have directed the dairy board to ensure that our farmers are protected. Anyone who will be found to have gone against the government order, necessary actions will be taken,” said the CS.

The CS further disclosed that he has instructed the dairy board to ensure that milk becomes part of the Strategic Food Reserve (SFR) .

Mr Munya said that his ministry is reviewing certain reforms in the dairy sector which will see that farmers paid according to the quality of their milk.

“After the Cabinet approved last week that SFR be a department within the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), I have instructed the dairy board to ensure that milk powder is made part of the emergency food reserve,” Mr Munya revealed.

The CS said the government will also revive the milk retail prices arguing that some of the supermarkets were making huge profits while farmers are not getting value for their products.

“We are committed to protect our dairy farmers and we will have to relook the supermarket prices as a way of promoting the culture of milk consumption in this country so that our people can buy from farmers so as to get something from their products,” he added.

Initially, farmers had called on the government to impose extra Value Added Tax (VAT) on the Uganda milk imported into the country in order to protect the local milk sector.

The cheaper Uganda milk products had flooded the country and has been blamed for the current glut that has seen many farmers pour milk for lack of market.

Prices of raw milk also significantly dropped with some farmers selling at Sh21 per kilo, the lowest in many years.

The farmers blamed this on the cheaper Ugandan alternatives which have found their way into the country owing to the East African Community trading protocols that allow easier movement of goods across EAC borders.

But when Mr Munya took over as the CS Agriculture in January, he ordered the New KCC to start buying milk from farmers at Sh33 per litre.

New KCC and Brookside had been buying milk at between Sh19 to Sh27 at the farm gate.

According to New KCC Managing Director Nixon Sigey, they had requested for Sh2 billion to help mop out milk in the country when there is a glut but the government released Sh500 million.

Last November, then Agriculture CAS Andrew Tuimur said the ministry had requested Sh2 billion through the SFR to cater for the processing of excess milk into powder.  

The Public Finance Management Act, 2015 states that the SFR includes maize, beans, rice, fish, powdered milk and canned beef.

Milk production has grown more than three-fold owing to conducive weather conditions from a monthly average of 15 million litres to 62 million litres produced per month.