Band of Somali brothers in enterprising dairy venture
MOGADISHU’S MILK INDUSTRY GETS A JUMP-START FROM IMPORTED HOLSTEIN FRIESIAN COWS – GIVING CONSUMERS A TASTE FOR THE REAL THING
FOUR Somali brothers have imported dozens of Holstein Friesian cows, the world’s top milk-producing breed, hoping the high-risk strategy can build the war-torn country’s dairy industry from scratch.
Parts of the country are still plagued by al-qaeda-linked alshabaab, but a degree of stability in the capital Mogadishu in recent years has begun to attract investment from locals and from Somalis living abroad.
Some businessmen see opportunities in the livestock industry, whose mainstay is traditional breeds of cattle, reared by pastoralists, which produce little milk.
A devastating drought last year killed off thousands of cows and camels.
Violence
Yusuf Abdirahman Dahir, 49, who manages Som Dairy and owns it with his brothers, said they had so far spent $370 000 (almost R5.3 million) importing the cattle and infrastructure for milk production, processing and distribution.
“We want to revive the Somali dairy industry that got destroyed in the violence,” he said in an interview at the dairy facility, a high stonewalled compound where a few dozen workers tended to the cattle.
The dairy, 2km outside the capital, produces 600 litres of milk daily, from 35 cows that are being milked. There are 54 dairy cows in total on the property, but some are not being milked due to calving.
Dahir, who sports hair dyed with red henna, said the new venture was not for the faint-hearted.
The first batch of Holstein Friesian cows, which are native to the Netherlands and Germany, died due to the heat in the Horn of Africa region, where temperatures average above 30°C.
Som Dairy imported its first cows two years ago and had become profitable, Dahir said, without providing figures.
Local farmers have been impressed by the new breed of cows in town, and several have brought their herds to cross-breed them with the imported bulls, Dahir said.
The venture is one of two established by local dairies in the country of 14 million people, said Mohamed Omar, the government’s director of livestock.
He said his office was preparing a proposal to present to the cabinet on how the government could support expanding the market for local dairy producers.
Powder
Residents of the Red Sea capital are developing a taste for fresh milk, after years of drinking powdered milk, imported from the Gulf, mixed with water.
Shopkeeper Nuradin Haji Omar is buying 20 litres of milk a day from Som Dairy, up from 15 when he began buying from them last year.
“We are very thankful to the dairy company for the good business,” said Omar.
Som sells a litre of milk to retailers at $1.20 and shopkeepers like Omar mark it up to $1.50 a litre, cheaper than the camel milk sold by several farms just outside Mogadishu for $2 a litre. – Reuters