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Kampala, Uganda | Julius Businge | Consumers of milk products in Uganda and beyond have five new yoghurt flavors added onto the market by Pearl Dairy Farms Limited.
The new flavors were officially unveiled for consumption on Oct.03 at the company’s premises in Mbarara City, South Western Uganda.
They include apricot, peach, butterscotch, coconut and plain. They were launched by the State Minister of Finance for Investment and Privatisation, Evelyn Anite. The company has been selling two flavors – strawberry and vanilla.
“I am happy it is a product that is made in Uganda,” Anite said.
“The flavors are all very good,” Anite said after tasting some of the newly unveiled flavors.
She applauded the processor for creating job opportunities for Ugandans and putting the country on the world map through exporting high quality products to big markets in the East African Community, Africa, Japan and others.
Anite promised, through government, to continue supporting the company through access to affordable credit from Uganda Development Bank, providing reliable and affordable electricity and access to local and regional markets.
She said there are many trading and bilateral agreements that have been signed by Uganda and other countries that would be implemented to boost market access of Ugandan milk products.
The company has since last year been facing market access challenges in Kenya, one of its largest consumers of its products after authorities moved to block the entry of milk products from Uganda.
“Some of our regional market especially Kenya got issues last year but we are working hard to resolve those issues,” Anite said, “I will inform the President about it,” she added.
She also said the reopening of the airport will boost demand and exports for products such as milk products. The reopening of schools too will boost demand, she said.
She also said the government has put in place an enabling environment for businesses and factories to operate through provision of electricity, market searching, credit access and more.
The result of this, she said, is promotion of value addition, creation of jobs and increased tax collection by the government.
Anite promised that the government would continue helping farmers to manage diseases that are a threat to their cattle business.
She also said new markets like Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and others are being pursued.
Pearl Dairy Farms Managing Director Devendra Seth, said the launch of the new flavors means they are committed to investing more in Uganda and to add value to the milk and create opportunities.
He said, in 2019, the company purchased 142million litres of milk but, because of COVID-19 restrictions, the market has been distorted and only 32million litres of milk have been bought in the first nine months of 2020.
On average, company executives pay farmers Shs700 per litre of milk through their umbrella cooperatives.
“The farmers have milk but the market is limited,” he said. Devendra said that the easing of COVID-19 restrictions has seen the market gain momentum and is optimistic the future is bright for the business and the farmers.
He said the company enjoys 20% market share for the dairy sector in the country and that they had resumed selling limited quantities of milk to Kenya as authorities in the two countries (Uganda and Kenya) work out a mechanism to resolve the current market impasse.
Pearl Diary started operations in Uganda in 2013 with production capacity per day standing at 800, 000 litres and employing 2,000 people both directly and indirectly.
The number of employees was cut at the beginning of the year after company executive temporarily closed the factory due to lack of market access to Kenya.
But the reopening has seen some of them (employees) return to work.
