Milk Afric dairy plant opens in June

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Peggy Serame has said that the long-awaited Milk Afric dairy project will commence operations in June this this year.

The construction of the Milk Afric dairy farm project was initially expected to be complete by the second half of 2018 but has failed to kick off over the past four years.

Presenting the Ministry’s budget for 2021/22 to Parliament on Monday, Serame said BDC is in the process of soliciting technical partners who are keen to acquire an equity stake in the business. “Milk Afric flagship project has experienced some delays but will commence operations in June 2021. An Expression of Interest has been floated locally and into the region, to allow for maximum reach and for a wider pool of experienced candidates,” she said.

The trade minister said once fully operational, the farm will create 215 jobs for Batswana. To date the company has trained 15 employees at the University of Florida to study dairy management and 10 more students are currently enrolled from June 2019 undergoing the same training programme. Once fully operational, the farm will produce a total of 21.9 million litres or one third of the national milk demand, which is over 65 million litres a year. Botswana imports 58.8 million litres from South Africa at a cost of about P345 million.

The P120 million project was reconfigured into a Public Private Partnership deal between Lobatse Town Council (LTC), which owns 10 percent shareholding through leasing its 1375.4 ha farm for 25 years; and 26 percent by Botswana Development Corporation (BDC). The rest (64 percent) was held by a private investor who has now disinvested, leaving BDC with major shareholding at 90 percent.