Dairy

Dairy

The dairy industry is the single largest component within the agricultural sector accounting for between 3% and 4% of the National GDP and 12% of the agricultural GDP. Dairy production supports approximately 1.8 million rural households in addition to over 700,000 jobs along the dairy value chain. Dairy production in Kenya is dominated by smallholder farmers who produce over 80% of the milk.

Kenya is one of the largest producers of dairy products in Sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated herd of about 3.5 million improved dairy cattle, 14.1 million indigenous cattle, 270,400 dairy goats, and 2.97 million dairy camels. The total annual milk production is estimated at 5.7 billion litres.

The opportunity to pursue the export growth target for the dairy sub-sector lies in export potential in the following target destination markets for dairy products: EAC, COMESA, ECOWAS, ECCAS, and Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, UEA, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait) and select Middle East Countries. The annual dairy products market size of these target regional blocks and countries combined is estimated at USD 9.7 billion against Kenya’s current annual exports of USD 9 million to the same markets (or 10% of their combined potential). Therefore, if Kenya were to aim at increasing her dairy products export market share in these markets to 5%, it would translate to USD487 million in dairy products export value.

Investment opportunities available in the sector include; Partnering with existing milk processors to set up powered milk plants and revival of stalled companies in the sector or value chain.