Milk Prices Expected to Drop in Early August

By Amina Faki

Kenya Dairy Board (KDP) managing director Margret Kibogy has said that the rains have not been sufficient to enhance pastures for the past few months.

Following the onset of rains, milk production has increased by ten percent. Consumers may have to wait until the end of July for the prices to drop.

According to an interview with the Business Daily, Ms. Kibogy said that the rains have been erratic and for this reason, milk production has just increased marginally since it started raining; normally at this time of the year supplies are supposed to have normalized.

The cold season in July will cut production, Ms. Kibogy said. She added that the impact on the milk production is however not big.

The price of milk hit a new high as the production falls short due to low supply of the animal feed. According to KDP milk volumes will stabilize at the beginning of August and the prices could go back to 45 shillings for fresh brands and 50 shillings for the long life type.

The drought has hit the farmers so hard that most of them survive with the practice of free grazing and who depends on the rain for pasture.

Since January this year, the price of the commodity shot from an average of 45 shillings to 65 shillings by the end of March. This marked the sharpest rise in the prices to be ever recorded hence gradually increasing the cost of the food basket in the Kenyan history.

According to statistics from KDP, the volumes of milk collected by processors fell by 36 percent from 56.44 million liters in October 2016 to 36.11 million liters in February.

Last week the government allowed free duty importation of 9000 tons of powder milk to curb the shortage in the country.