Last Sunday, the world's largest dairy exporter, New Zealand Dairy Co- operative Fonterra, with its local business partner Faffa Foods,officially launched its first ever nationwide Anchor's Fortified Milk Drink in Ethiopia. Of course,the opening of such first world class dry blending plant at a cost 10 million USD in Ethiopia, has multifaceted benefits on the ongoing national task of transforming the agriculture- led economy to the industry driven one in the shortest time possible.
In fact, Ethiopia is one of the countries with the largest livestock population in the world. It is ranked first and tenth in its livestock potential in Africa and the world respectively. However, it is ironic to hear that currently, the country is importing thousand tons of a wide range of dairy products from abroad.
Moreover, according to some studies, the nation's per capita milk consumption has been drastically decreasing over years. It was 16 liters per annum in 2009. The underlining reasons for such low consumption of milk at national level are said to be urbanization, transportation problems,, poor quality and unaffordability.
Yes, the government of Ethiopia has been formulating and adopting various policies and strategies in a bid to effectively unleash its livestock potentials . For instance, it has established Meat and Dairy Industry development institute aiming to ramp up nationwide dairy production. It has identified nine economic corridors throughout the country in order to ensure sustainable development and exploit the rich livestock potentials of the nation than never before.
It is true that Ethiopia envisages to be a middle income country by 2025 and a hub of manufacturing industry in Africa in the near future. Furthermore, the nation is aggressively investing in light manufacturing businesses and agro -processing industries with a view to having enormous labor intensive jobs .
As Ethiopia is exerting tremendous efforts in interlinking the urban and rural areas of the country with roads, the problem related to transport would soon be solved and enabling conditions would be created for farmers who wish to supply fresh milk to the market in a timely manner than never before.
Obviously, when there are a number of dry blending plants in the country, the prices of dairy products would be affordable to fellow countrymen. Henceforth, the government is expected to do more in attracting internationally known dairy producers and encouraging others to follow the foot step of the New Zealand number one milk brand producer that has just started producing a wide range of dairy products in Ethiopia.
Enabling to produce Fortified Milk Drink locally means that Ethiopia's Sekota Deceleration to end child malnutrition by 2030 would be realized earlier of its timetable. Thus, the government, pertinent bodies and partners should work together with investors who wish to get involved in producing high quality and proven nutrition milk from now and on.
To enhance the quality and the quantity of the nation's milk production, importing duty free live animals and a large number of best- breed cattle has to be carried out in an organized and transparent manner.
Last but not least, Ethiopian farmers need to draw lessons from farmers' co -opertaive of New Zealand, that has become the largest high quality dairy products supplier in the world.
Making available high quality and Fortified milk to the people at large, the nation would be blessed with millions of healthier and active children apart from improving its life expectancy rate in the world .
Indeed , the government has been encouraging millions of farmers to engage in milk farming and rearing cattle with a view to boost milk and meat production of the nation. Coordinated and all rounded support in this sector are highly recommended at this particular time.
Source: ALLAFRICA
No comments:
Post a Comment