The Kenya Dairy Board has warned traders against dealing with illegal powdered milk which is taking up the local market share pushing farmers to losses.
Speaking in Korakora division in Garissa during an inspection tour of a local milk processing plant in the area, the Kenya Diary Board chairperson Genesio Mugo said that currently, there no permit issued to anybody to import powdered milk into the country.
“I want to state clearly that there is no permit to import powdered milk into the country. This is because we want to create a market for our local milk from camels, cows and goats because the illegal milk is taking away our local milk market share,” Mugo said.
“We want Kenyans to consume our milk not from other countries. We have powdered milk from our local companies like the KCC and more investors are coming to set up powdering milk plants to fill in the gaps we may have,” he added.
Mugo reiterated that with the recent rains, the country has a capacity to produce enough milk for local consumption sufficiently.
The board’s Managing Director Margaret Kibogi on her part said that currently the board is focusing on the non traditional mil producing counties like Garissa and have already done trainings for farmers and other stakeholders to increase the diary farming knowledge.
“Milk consumption in this area is very high and we have decided to expand out footprint here by setting up offices so that we can enhance our services and get closer to our stakeholders,” Kibugi said.
On the illegal powder milk, the MD said that they are working with a multi agency team to crack down on illegal products and ensure that local farmers and consumers are protected.
“We want to welcome all our traders and other stakeholders to be compliant with the regulations and laws so that we can protect our farmers and our consumers because we don’t even know how safe is the illegal milk for human consumption,” she said.
