Uganda to ban milk hawking

KAMPALA, Uganda - Uganda is to ban the hawking and vending of raw milk in the country.

This, according to the state minister for Animal Husbandry Bright Rwamirama is the major source of poor quality, diluted and unhygienic milk on the market.

“This habit of people moving from homes to homes on bicycles carrying milk cans and ringing their bells for customers must stop.

“These people after diluting the milk with water, cassava flour and expired/dangerous milk preservative chemicals (melamine) they take it to unsuspecting buyers. This is because at most time they sell at a cheaper price than on the market,” said Rwamirama during the launch of activities for the African Livestock Conference and Exhibition (ALiCE2014) to be hosted at the Speke Resort Munyonyo.

He said the roadside vendors who are common in the rural areas are not different from those who hawk milk hence the need to have all their activities terminated.

“This ban will include even those that sell milk on the roadside in rural areas in jerry cans and those that pack it in polythene and sit on the roadside. All these sell diluted milk,” added Rwamirama.

Nicolas Kauta the Director Animal Resources in the Ministry of Agriculture said milk production in the year 2011/12 was estimated at 1.86 billion liters. The value of exports is estimated to be about 20 million US dollars annually.

“By end of 2013 there were 347 rural milk collecting centres in more than 13 districts with a total capacity of about 1.5 million litres. There are over 114 milk road tankers with a total capacity of 925,170 litres,” he said while giving recent statistics on milk production in Uganda.

He said currently there are over 30 (45) large, medium and small-scale dairy processing plants in the country with a combined total installed capacity of over1,103,830 litres (1.5) per day.

Of these, Kauta added about 4 have come up in the last two years. The processed products from these plants range from pasteurized milk, Ultra Heat Treated milk, yoghurt, butter, cheese, milk powder, ice cream and ghee.

A total of 100,767,383 litres of milk were processed into value added products during the year 2012.The farm-gate price of milk has moved from UGX 500-600 a liter to UGX 1000 a liter because of improved marketing .

Kauta said the value of imports on the other hand, decreased from $1.9 million in 2011 to US $1.4 million in 2012. Currently, there are 229 registered cooperatives involved in collective milk marketing and milk chilling.

Meanwhile the milk traders under their umbrella body Uganda National Diary Traders Association (UNADATA) last week decided to close all their milk collection centres protesting the impending ban.

By Paul Tentena, Sunday, April 27th, 2014


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