On Tuesday afternoon last week, Shoa Supermarket on Africa Avenue was, surprisingly, discouraging customers from purchasing more than a litre of milk.
This trend has been going on for the last month or so because of a shortage in the milk supply and the supermarket wanted to evenly distribute the available products to their customers, said Shifa Mohammed, manager of Shoa Supermarket, Bole branch.
Following the conclusion of the two-month Christian fasting period on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2015, the demand for milk has increased while the supply has plummeted.
The milk section at Shoa, which used to be filled with various milk brands such as Shola, Family, Mama, Etete and Loni is now dominated by Harme Milk, which has only been in the market for three weeks.
Currently, Shoa gets 200 to 250lt of milk daily from Harme Milk, while the other brands are not available in more than 30 to 40lt in intervals of two to three days. But in the fasting season, up to 200lt of Shola and 80lt of Mama, Loni and Etete each, were available on a daily basis.
The 30 year-old supermarket, Fantu, located on Africa Avenue, is facing supply shortages as well, said Mesfin Mare, supervisor of Fantu Supermarket at Bole Branch. The 200lt milk supply they used to get from Mama during the fasting season has now decreased to 80lt, in the same vein as Etete and Loni milk, which now have 50lt of milk available each.
Mesfin Belayneh Plc is one of 32 registered dairy-processing companies in Ethiopia. It provides milk to various supermarkets and shops. The company has been producing Family Milk for the past nine years.
In this season, same as last year, the shortage in supply is triumphing, said Hailu Eshetu, manager of Mesfin Belayneh Plc. Currently, the company processes 11,000lt of pasteurised milk daily, which is far lower than the 19,000lt of milk they used to distribute on a daily basis.
In relation to the supply shortage, the price of milk has also increased. A half litre package of pasteurised milk, which used to be sold for eight Birr is now sold for 9.5Br while those that used to be sold for around 10 Br have now increased to 11 Br. The price of raw milk could go as high as 24 Br depending on the place and quality.
The price increment came because the price the dairy processors received from farmers had also increased, said Hailu.
Dejene Argedo, around Sululta, has four cows. He has worked with dairy processors such as Mama Milk for the last six years. At the regular times, he used to supply a litre of milk for eight Birr, which has now increased to 10.5 Br.
The price increment happened for two major reasons, said Dejene, mentioning the rising price in animal feed and the decrease in the amount of milk production.
Dereje Damo, whose family owns 12 cows in Ashewa Woreda in Sululta said that their cows, which are an indigenous breed, have decreased their milk production by half from the two litre milk they used to give on a daily basis.
The same is the case for Birhane Marami, who is a mother of two and owns four cows in the same village.
The lack of grazing land for cows this season has contributed to lower milk production. Bonan, as the villagers call the dry season, is harming feed crops. Currently, grazing land contributed to 57.49pc of the total animal feed production in Ethiopia.
The Belg season, an agriculturally important short rainy season around March and April, has not been generous this year. In February and April, there was zero rainfall though, according to the National Meteorology Agency, it was expected to come with 36mm and 90mm of rainfall, respectively, in Addis Abeba and its surroundings. In March, 23mm of rainfall was recorded even though 70mm of rainfall was expected. And in May 80mm is expected but at mid-month only 10mm has been recorded.
The region produces 6.5m litres of milk annually.
Most people are also unwilling to buy concentrated feeds for indigenous cows as there would be no jump from two litres of milk per day because of their genetic makeup. But still, this breed comprises 90pc of the total cows that exist in Ethiopia, which is around 29 million, out of a total cattle population of 53 million Br.
To make matters worse, the price of the feed farmers buy for their few exogenous cows, which produces nine litres of milk per day is rising. Fifty kilograms of concentrate animal feed known as Furushka is sold for 480Br, showing a wide mark up from the 150 Br price at which it used to be sold.
The price increase follows the surge in demand, which is created by the unavailability of grazing lands, admits Addis Ahmed, deputy manager of Alahmdu Flour Factory in Suluta, which manufactures concentrated animal feed.
Dejene spends around 2,500 Br in 12 days to provide his cows with four quintals of concentrated feed which he said is still not fulfilling. The cost of animal feed accounts for 70pc of the total cost of milk production, according to a study by Precise Consult International, a firm established in 2007.
In order to match the hike in demand in the non-fasting season, with the requisite supply, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) is implementing various strategies. Among these is synchronisation, which involves the provision of hormones to cows to manipulate the time in which they can be milked or give birth, said Tadesse Tefera, senior milk development expert at MoA. In this fiscal year’s nine-month performance report, the Ministry had planed to distribute 63,000 vials of hormones for the intended purpose across the country, of which it achieved 98pc.
Furthermore, the Ministry is also carrying out construction of six artificial insemination laboratories for cross breeding, which is expected to raise a cow’s milk production to nine litres on average, said Tadesse. Two of the labs have already been completed at a cost of 33.2 million Br. To date, the country has been relying on a single 35 year-old National Artificial Insemination Centre.
In order to provide feed security, the government is also providing training to regional states on how to preserve surplus grass collected in season and keep it for a future period through silage, which involves burying the crop residues, said Bekele Yehualaeshet, senior feed development expert at MoA. Other grass species, which can persist in harsh environments, are also being introduced. The Minister is also providing training of trainers for around 120 people.
Many customers as well as feed development experts at the MoA also suggested that the value added tax (VAT), which is levied in concentrated animal feed, be removed to control the rise in price as was done in the case of poultry feed.
A ‘Five Year Dairy Road Map’ has been drafted by the Ministry, which aims to increase milk production to 9.4 billion litres in 2020 from the 5.3 billion litres. At present, the per capita milk consumption ranges from 19 to 22 litres, with its GDP contribution amounting to 28 billion Br.
However, this does not seem to solve the problem as the gap is prevalent in the policy itself, Amanuel Assefa (PhD), deputy chief of party at Precise Consult International, discerned. The government’s open economic policy has only opened doors to the market end players. This has increased the number of dairy processors without actually preserving and enhancing the production, he added. Therefore, a programme that focuses on the problems and solutions of the regions should be designed, he suggested.
The prominent problem that is reducing the number of cows in the Addis Abeba and its surroundings is urbanisation. For example, in 2010, there were six dairy farmers that fell under the radar of the Addis Abeba City Administration officials when 120ht of land was being cleared for Land Development & Urban Renewal Projects in Arada District. But until now, there is no place that is reserved or kept to resettle displaced cows or a master plan that takes into account the dairy sector, he added. Therefore, the government should design a programme that can address such problems and other issues such as the availability of financing and consultancy services, he added.
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