Milk retail prices in Kenya hit the roof

Milk prices continue to rise as the dairy industry is yet to recover from the dry weather in the first quarter of the year.

A litre of processed milk is selling at an average of Sh60 in supermarkets, while hawkers in urban centres are selling the same at Sh50.

Retail prices of major brands have increased in the last two months, caused by a dip in raw milk production.

But leading dairy processor Brookside Dairy has reported improved raw milk intake in the past three weeks, raising hope that the high shelf prices could soon stabilise due to the effect of supply and demand.

Brookside, which controls over 44 per cent of the national raw milk market, said intake had shot up by 30 per cent since it began paying farmers Sh42 per litre mid last month.

John Gethi, Brookside’s director of milk procurement, said despite depressed production due to the dry weather experienced this year, supplies to the company’s 50 cooling stations countrywide had improved as more farmers signed up to deliver milk. “While recent rains in different parts of the country will have a further positive impact on production, we are still in a state where regeneration of forage is still going on,” he said in a statement Wednesday.