September 11, 2008

Required drugs not available in the local market has resulted in high somatic cell counts in the quality of milk and a negative impact on the volumes of milk produced, hampering the development of the country's dairy industry.

The lack of drugs would lead to a significant decline in exports of milk to regional and international markets and farmers are facing difficulties in maintaining the health of their cattle, Mr. Ezra Ndlovu, regional chairman of the National Dairy Farmers Association Matabeleland also said.

As a lot of tick infections occur during the hot season, Mr. Ndlovu is requesting the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to make foreign currencies available to dairy farmers to assist them in purchasing cleaning detergents and chemicals needed for maintaining high standards of hygiene at farm level.

Though milk is a controlled product, the industry has been affected by the move by stockfeed companies who have resorted to charging the product in foreign currency while milk had to be sold in local currency at affordable prices to consumers.

If the heifers are not well-maintained, it could lead to a critical shortage of milk next season as currently, the cows that used to produce 30 litres of milk per day are only producing two to three litres now.