Published: 28 August 2017

Manicaland's dairy industry is operating below capacity due to high and unsustainable production costs.

Zimbabwe has for more than a decade failed to produce enough milk and has resorted to importing from South Africa, losing foreign currency.

High production costs such as electricity, labour, stock feeds and chemicals have been the major stumbling block to the full recovery of the dairy industry.

In an interview, Rusape's top dairy farmer, Mr John Carman Stanger, of Chimbi Source Farm, said despite the challenges of production costs, Government and the private sector were all pulling in one direction to bring back the lucrative, but highly capital intensive industry to its feet.

"We are not producing enough milk that is required by the nation and it is a big challenge," he said.

"The major cause is the high cost of production as compared to other regional countries.

"The cost of our electricity, labour, stock feeds and chemicals is too high such that it is very tight to break even."

Mr Stanger called on new players in the industry to research more and engage seasoned players for them to make it.

"Dairy farming is too demanding," he said.

Government and private companies such as Dairibord Zimbabwe, Nestle and Dendairy have been importing heifers which are distributed to individual farmers, co-operatives and schools for the production of milk.
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