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Meru Dairy Farmers To Produce Over Half A Million Litres Of Milk Daily

by Francis Muli September 28, 2018, 7:02 PM 1k Views 1 Comment

Hon Mwangi Kiunjuri and ,Pamela Mutembei

Hon Mwangi Kiunjuri, Kenneth Gitonga and ,Pamela Mutembei

The Meru dairy farmers hope to produce over 600,000 litres of milk daily in the next few months following a boost from financial institutions.

This was announced during the fifth Annual Dairy Farmers Open Day in Meru, which saw over 20,000 farmers participate in the open day that had corporates come to support the dairy sector.

The ceremony was officially opened by the Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Hon Mwangi Kiunjuri who congratulated the input of Meru Dairy into the agricultural sector in Kenya.

The Meru Central Dairy Cooperative Union and Credit Bank estimate that milk production capacity will rise from 300,000 litres per day to 600,000 per day in the county within the next few months, following collaborated efforts to boost milk production in the county through different stakeholders.

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“This will also enable the milk product range increase from milk and yoghurt to incorporate eight more milk products,” reads in part a statement from Meru Central Dairy Cooperative Union.

The Meru Central Dairy Cooperative Union was formed in 2005 to market the excess milk from the local farmers in the Mount Kenya region. Consisting of over forty three thousand dairy farmers, the association generates over Ksh4.8 billion annually, according to the statement.

Pamela Mutembei, the head of business banking for Credit Bank, says that the bank is focused to support agribusiness sector and resultant value chain ecosystem with over Ksh1 billion.

Currently the bank is partnering with the farmers and the union to support acquisition of facilities through financing and insuring the machinery, building and livestock.

“This will effectively eliminate the losses that have been eminent in cases of diseases in livestock and machinery in cases of power shortage,” added Isaac Thuiya, the local branch manager for Credit Bank.

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