Women in charge of dairies are all smiles

The other day I was in Ouagadougou with the President of the National Union of Mini-dairies. She was all smiles. The sale of all her milk products were going very well. She no longer needed to look for customers. “The demand for fresh milk is exploding” she told me.

In Koudougou as well the woman in charge of the dairy selling “Milk from Boulkiemdé” was also happy. She told me that yoghurt or dégué based on milk powder were no longer to be found. In the past month her dairy increased its sales of local milk to retailers by 50%!

And this for one single good reason: the rising price of milk powder. The facts are there for all to see. One must remember, however, the difference between the bulk bags of 25 kg milk powder and the household format of 400 grams, 900 grams  and 2.5 kg. 

Today a bag sells for at least 75.000 CFA francs (sometimes even 100.000, depending upon location and brand). Such a bag will provide the necessary dry milk content for 192 litres of milk formula (reconstituted milk). Thus, one litre of such milk would come to 390 francs. But most of the time the local  fresh milk that is delivered to the dairy for processing costs 250 to 300 francs. The times when 200 francs were enough to buy a litre of milk formula are far gone !

The price of milk formula, in small packages for household use, should be compared to the price of pasteurised local milk sold in grocers’ shops. In Koudougou the fresh milk “Boulkiemdé” is sold for 500 francs per litre, whereas formula milk will cost 547 francs, given that at family size package of 2.5 kg of imported milk powder costs 10 500 francs ! If you buy milk formula in smaller packages it will even cost 600 francs per litre. 

It is therefore not surprising that the demand for fresh (pasteurised) local milk is virtually exploding. And it will increase even further for a long time to come, provided that the distribution and refrigeration network is improved.

Oudet Maurice
Director of SEDELAN
Koudougou