Brookside Dairy unveils recruitment drive, eyes over 10,000 new raw milk suppliers

Brookside field staff weigh a farmer’s raw milk before putting it into the firm's mobile cooler

Milk processor Brookside Dairy has embarked on a massive farmer recruitment drive aimed at bringing on board more than 10,000 new raw milk suppliers.

The new drive to shore up farmer numbers is in response to the need to procure enough raw milk that would satisfy the processor’s expanded production capacity, after its Ruiru plant underwent a system upgrade last year. The factory’s expansion included installation of a powder milk processing line, which doubled daily raw milk intake capacity to nearly 2 million litres.

Animal husbandry

Brookside’s General Manager in charge of milk procurement and extension services John Gethi said the initiative to bring on board more farmers targets key raw milk sheds in five of the former provinces of Eastern, Central, Rift Valley, Western and Coast. Under the programme, the Ruiru-based processor will empower dairy farmers to produce more milk through focus on improved animal husbandry, besides according milk producers access to bank loans through a lending arrangement with financial institutions.

Mr Gethi said the enlisting of new milk suppliers would target both individual farmers and dairy groups. He said the company will also use the current initiative to reward its milk producers, currently numbering some 160,000 in the country. The company has lined up a raffle through which lucky suppliers would win farm machinery and inputs.

“Our objective is to provide dairy farmers with an assured market for their milk. We shall continue to guarantee payment for all the milk delivered to us as a strategy for empowering dairy farmers,” Gethi said in a statement.

He said since the start of the recruitment last month, the processor had recorded an increase of 30 per cent in its daily raw milk intake, which currently stands at nearly 1 million litres.