Kenya’s livestock turnover has hit US $1.44Bn. The turnover, which is an increase from 2018’s US $1.34Bn, has been attributed to Kenyans’ growing appetite for meat and dairy products with the support of private and county government value chains.
The fast-rising sector continued to attract formation of small-scale farmer co-operatives that increased by 20.2%. According to media reports, these are co-operatives that collect milk from local farmers for onward direct sales to milk processors and raised deliveries from 535.7m litres in 2017 to 634.3m in 2018.
Drawing from the 2019 Economic Survey by Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS); Quantities of milk and cream processed increased by 10.6% from 410.6m litres in 2017 to 454.1m litres in 2018.
Furthermore, 2019 has been projected to be a game changer with county governments actualizing their investments in dairy processing with Murang’a’s US $989,609 new creameries having launched operations with a promise to increase farmer prices based on milk sales.
Meanwhile, Embu County has since bought 600 dairy cows for the pilot project involving 60 farmers. Increased formalization of the milk value chain has also informed interest in related industries such as animal feeds, livestock drugs as well as fodder production with county governments subsidizing service fees for artificial insemination as well as providing milk coolers to self-help groups in high milk producing areas.
The KNBS survey noted that 2.78m cows were slaughtered, being 7.3% higher than 2017’s 2.59m cows, which also saw 10.2m sheep and goats slaughtered. This is a 11.3% rise from the 9.2m sold to abattoirs in major cities.
On rise in pork eateries especially in suburbs of major towns as well as meat processing plants, pig sales recorded a 7.8% rise where 388,200 pigs were slaughtered compared to 360,100 in 2017.
