Pearl Dairy Farm is seeking to enter new markets to salvage a streak of losses resulting from blockades against its products, especially in Kenya. PHOTO | FILE
Pearl Dairy Farms Limited, the manufacturers of Lato dairy products, is seeking to earn Shs18b in an export plan that will see the company push its products into new markets such as Ethiopia, Malawi and South Sudan.
Pearl Dairy Farms has been seeking to enter new markets after its products were blocked from Kenya early this year, one of its biggest markets.
Mr Bijoy Varghese, the Pearl Diary Farm general manager, at the weekend told Daily Monitor the company is seeking to grow its export market by “between Shs11b and Shs18b ($3-$5m) in the first year”.
Key among the export products will be powdered and long life (UHT) milk and later butter and flavoured milk.
Pearl Dairy Farms announced early last month that it had entered Ethiopia, Malawi and South Sudan as one of the strategies to widen its export capacity.
The company also said recently it had already established in Zambia, which will consolidate its focus on widening into Africa.
“We are exporting powder mainly to these markets given the longer distances. These markets currently import powder from outside Africa. We want to capture these markets,” Mr Varghese said, noting the new plan presents the company with the need to expand its production capacity in Mbarara, especially for powdered milk.
“To meet the eventual demand from these markets, we shall need to boost our capacity and once we have the new powder capacity, we shall look beyond east Africa into West Africa,” he said.
Pearl Dairy Farms also recently announced it had diversified into honey production in which the company indicated it would invest close to Shs11b.
The move seeks to improve the livelihood of farmers that have been affected by Covid-19 and the decline in exports due to its products being locked out of Kenya.
In February, Kenya closed out at least 19 trucks that had been loaded with Pearl Dairy Farms products on claims that the company was smuggling low quality products onto its market.
Kenya eventually banned the Pearl Dairy Farms’ products and dairy product from other companies working from Uganda, noting the move sought to protect the country’s dairy milk.
The ban saw Pearl Dairy Farms lose close to Shs19b in monthly exports to one of its largest markets.
However, Mr Varghese told Daily Monitor the company had returned to Kenya but with restricted export quantities with much of the milk bought and packed in Kenya. Lifting blockades
Pearl Dairy Farms says that as it waits for government to engage regional governments to fully lift blockades on its dairy products, it is prudent that it enters new markets to boost its export capacity. “We have full confidence in both the governments of Uganda and Kenya to resolve the current issues amicably for the betterment of EAC and farmers in both markets,” Mr Varghese said, noting the new markets will help the company recover from a disastrous half year that had seen the company lose billions in export earning
No comments :
Post a Comment