Nigeria: Fan Milk moves to reduce $1.5bn capital flight on dairy product

A world leading food company, Fan Milk/Danone is driving an intensive training of dairy farmers at its N12 billion dairy farm located at Odeda in Odeda local government area of Ogun State as part of its measures to reduce capital flight of $1.5 billion spent yearly by Nigerians to import diary product into the country.

The company in partnership with the Ogun State is training dairy farmers at Odeda dairy farm in order to boost production and consumption of dairy products such as milk, cheese, ice cream and yoghurt, thereby increasing Nigerians’ per capita consumption of milk from 8 litres to a global average of 44 litres of milk, per annum.

The dairy farm, which is the first dairy farm owned by the French company – Fan Milk/Danone in Sub-Saharan Africa, trains farmers on the skills required to rear special breed dairy cows that can produce between 15 and 20 litres of milk daily, unlike local cows that produce between 4 and 7 litres per day.

Speaking at the graduation of 85 dairy farmers held at Fan Milk/Danone Dairy Farm at Odeda, Domenico Abanese, the Vice- President, Operations, Danone (Africa & Asia), said the training was an opportunity to transfer knowledge gained through experience over the years to the beneficiaries, so as to transform their activities and farming techniques for profitable and economic viability.

Abanese declared that the lessons learnt in the course of diary production and collection skills training would have an impact, not only on the participants, their families and the community, but also the local potentials and capacities of dairy products production, which according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, is less than 20% of the total milk consumption in Nigeria.

Also, Godwin Allen, the Operations Director for Danone( West Africa), said the establishment of Fan Milk/Danone Diary Farm in Odeda was to improve the economy of the community and the nation at large, adding that the graduands were taught courses on dairy practices, animal health and milk collection processes as well as how to increase productivity from their cows.

Responding on behalf of the Dapo Abiodun-led Administration in Ogun State, Adeola Odedina, Commissioner for Agriculture, noted the skills acquisition in dairy production and collection is one of the laudable programmes designed by Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and his Team to industrialize and rejuvenate the State’s economy through Agriculture and agribusiness.

Odedina said following the Commissioning of the Fan Milk/Danone dairy processing facility few months ago, the need to train youths in the sustainable management of an inclusive supply chain of milk and other dairy products arose, which prompted the successful completion of the training programme for 85 out of targeted 500 trainees within five years of inauguration.

“This is the first of its kind and I am happy to announce to you that the governor (Governor Dapo Abiodun) is working his talk in terms of collaborating with partners for the industrialization of the sector and has proved that contrary to some people’s opinion, large scale dairy farming can be done in Southwest and Ogun State is doing it big with Fan Milk/Danone.

“Which is why we have trained this set of participants, so that they can contribute their quota to increase milk collection and processing in the state”, he said.

Mariam Mofikoya from Osiele in Odeda local government area, who spoke on behalf of the trainees, applauded Fan Milk/Danone and Ogun State Government for the training, saying “it has been an eye opener and avenue to maximize profits across the diary value chain.”