Dairy farmers paid peanuts

Aug 27, 2009

DAIRY farmers have threatened to withhold milk unless there is an increase in the farm gate prices.

By Catherine Bekunda

DAIRY farmers have threatened to withhold milk unless there is an increase in the farm gate prices.

Frank Tumwebaze, the president of the Uganda National Farmers’s Federation (UNFFE), said a recent survey in seven cattle-corridor districts in the western region showed that farmers sold a litre of milk at between sh250 and sh500.

But consumers in Kampala pay between sh1,600 and sh2,600 for cooled and pasteurised milk respectively.

“Farmers would rather not sell than be cheated,” Frank Tumwebaze told reporters at Parliament on Wednesday.
He explained that milk traders and processors were getting between 50 and 70% profit, which was over and above the acceptable profit margin of 20 to 30%.

He said farmers were forced to sell at giveaway prices because of poor infrastructure and lack of market information.

Uganda has been facing scarcity of milk in the last three months due to the prolonged dry spell.

The UNFFE president explained since milk is a perishable commodity, the farmers sell it as soon as it is milked.
“Because the farmers are unable to acquire refrigeration facilities for storage and transportation to urban markets and factories, traders and buyers have for long cheated them with impunity. This must stop,” Tumwebaze vowed.

He appealed to farmers to exploit the Google SMS, which helps them find out the price of their products in urban markets.

“Basing on such information, farmers should determine their farm gate prices,” he said, imploring farmers to embrace collective marketing so that their voices are heard.

Tumwebaze disclosed that many milk processors, in order to provide milk cooling plants to dairy cooperatives, had tricked farmers into signing unfair contracts, which inhibit them from demanding fair prices.

“We shall review and terminate these contracts should we find them unfair to our people.”

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