By Mary Karugaba, New Vision, 22nd April, 2005

Western Uganda loses 80,000 litres of milk daily


About 80,000 litres of milk are thrown away daily in western Uganda, dairy farmers have said.

Presenting their memorandum to Parliament’s finance committee on Wednesday, the farmers attributed
the problem to over-production, saying Dairy Corporation (DCL) had stopped them from supplying milk
to the factory.

The committee, chaired by Bright Rwamirama, was meeting DCL officials over the challenges facing the
corporation and its divestiture.

“I have received complaints that dairy farmers pour between 55,000 and 80,000 litres of milk per day
and that DCL had stopped them from supplying milk. What are you doing about it?” Rwamirama asked DCL
officials.

He said 80,000 litres daily were too many yet other regions faced a scarcity.

However, DCL’s managing director, Charles Beisa, did not say whether the farmers were pouring the
milk or that DCL had stopped them from supplying it.
Beisa said during the rainy season, farmers over-produce milk, yet DCL had no capacity to absorb all
of it.

He said by the time milk arrives in Kampala, most of it is full of bacteria and cannot be processed
into UHT.

Nathan Twinamasiko, DCL’s executive director said Ugandans had low consumption of milk.

Twinamasiko said while a person is recommended to consume about 200 litres of milk annually,
Ugandans drink only about 40 litres.

He said the problem was temporally and would be no more by September.