Brookside Increases Milk Prices For Farmers By 17%

By Getrude Matayo

Brookside Dairy is expected to benefit dairy groups and smallholder farmers contracted to it from a major boost after the processor announced an increase in the farm gate price of milk, coming on the back of distributions in the value chain occasioned by the covid-19 pandemic.

John Gethi, Brookside’s director of milk procurement and manufacturing, said the new rates were a reaction to the prevailing market conditions in the value chain.

In the new rates effective September 1, Brookside will pay 17 percent more for a liter of raw milk, as the processor seeks to consolidate its lead in the country’s raw milk market.

The new price will benefit more 160,000 smallholder farmers across the country, who deliver to Brookside either through co-operatives or as individuals

“The price review has been necessitated by a change in the prevailing market conditions,” Gethi said in a statement sent on Monday 1^st September.

He said the new price is a major incentive to dairy co-operatives, who now have an opportunity to earn up to 42 shillings per liter for deliveries of chilled raw milk to the processor’s Ruiru factory. This is an increase from the current price of 36 shillings per liter of milk at the farm gate.

The rising farm gate prices also a welcome relief to farmers hit by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, which has seen a drop in supplies made to processors, thereby reducing incomes of smallholder farmers.

Data from industry regulator the Kenya Dairy Board indicates there has been a drop of up to 36 percent in milk deliveries from framers between the months of March and June this year.

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According to KDB, milk production was at 63 million liters per month in January, but it has since dropped to 42 million liters per month.

“Farmers should also take advantage of this price incentive to improve the management of their dairy herds, including vaccinating the animals against the deadly Foot and Mouth Disease and Lumpy Skin Disease, among others,” Gethi added.

processor, which has an installed daily processing capacity of over 1.5 million liters, has the largest raw milk collection footprint in the country, with more than 80 cooling centers spread across several counties in major milk production sheds.

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