Royal FrieslandCampina has announced plans to invest €23 million (US$26.7m) in an evaporated and ready-to-drink milk factory in Nigeria, as part of its Dairy Development Programme (DDP) in the country. The announcement was made during a visit to Abuja by the Dutch conglomerate’s Global CEO, Hein Schumacher, who also met with the country’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa.

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Commending FrieslandCampina WAMCO for initiating the DDP, and thus encouraging other investors to carry out backward integration in the sector, Mr Osinbajo reiterated the need to develop a robust plan to improve local production across the country. “The plan of extending the dairy development programme to other states is extremely important,” he said. “I think that backward integration is crucial. My worry is the lack of incentives for backward integration.”

 

Working with local farmers

 

Mr Schumacher explained: “The Vice President asked us to continue to invest in local dairy farming to increase local production of milk, and we are fully aligned with his request. We will take forward the programmes we have been running and expand them. We are investing around €23 million in our evaporated milk and ready-to-drink milk factory in order to provide fresh milk for the Nigerian consumer.”

 

Highlighting the milestones of FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s DDP, MD of the Nigerian business Ben Langat said: “Four model farms with crossbreed cows have been established to improve local milk collection across five milk collection centres. Our company is fully committed to working with local farmers to grow local milk production and ultimately ensure that Nigerians continue to benefit from the nutritious content of milk.

 

“Working with 3,500 dairy farmers in over 90 farming communities in Oyo State, we are already providing the required knowledge transfer and sustainable livelihoods for communities. We plan to transform additional 500 pastoralists to settled dairy farmers under the DDP model. Already over 100,000 people have been positively impacted around these communities,” Mr Langat added.

 

The DDP is FrieslandCampina’s initiative for sharing knowledge and training with farmers in a manner that enhances the farming infrastructure for all involved, by focusing on areas including improving milk quality, increasing per cow productivity, and securing market access. Together with Nigeria, the programme’s main activities are located in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Russia, Romania and Pakistan, where FrieslandCampina estimates it has directly or indirectly reached more than 250,000 dairy farmers since the start of the DDP in the 1980s.