FG, Arla foods seal pact on capacity building for dairy farmers

In its bids to commence the local sourcing of its dairy products, Arla Foods, producers of Dano Milk has signed a memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with the Federal Government, to commence training of dairy farmers on milk production.

Vice President of the company, Steen Hadsbjerg, while signing the MoU in Abuja, regretted that 100 per cent of the raw materials used by the company are imported. He said the company would train 200 farmers and also produce 1,000 litres of milk per day.

“We are committed to train 200 farmers in the beginning and a year to work with. We are committed to work towards what is called off-take and see how much local milk do we intend to utilise and that by 2020 we will be able to have 1,000 kilo per day.

“There is no raw material at the moment, that is why we are committed on how to source for local raw materials. We are in the process of laying out the project and by November, December, we will have detailed project plans that will spell how much we will be doing out of this area.”

He stated that the MoU would be for a four-year period, between 2016-2020, adding that they would start working with farmers in Kwara and Kaduna States, before expanding to other part of the country.

Hadsbjerg said the MoU empowers Arla Foods to create incentives for nomadic herders, to develop cooperative dairy businesses through the provision of workable organisational structure and training, as well as promoting and strengthening dairy cooperatives in Nigeria by improving their capabilities to be competitive on price and quality, as well as, gaining a larger share of the local dairy market.

Other areas of improvement the partnership will focus upon include; capabilities for qualitative product development and go-to-market abilities.