Githunguri Dairy Farmers’ Cooperative Society is set to open a depot in Arusha Tanzania as it seeks to extend its operation in the entire East Africa region.
The Cooperative which owns the Fresha brand of milk products was formed in 1961 by 31 dairy farmers keen to improve their dairying and marketing possibilities.
Currently, memberships of the co-operative stands at 17,000 members and its collection centers have expanded from one to 68.
Fresha milk is now the leading fresh milk brand in and around the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Contributing to its dramatic growth has been its adherence to quality standards, a turnaround from previous milk production in the country.
“This growth has emanated from a proactive response to be successful in pursuit of significant growth in a rapidly changing economic, social and political environment,” said the Society manager.
He added that the Society’s future plan is to expand its processing capacity so that current members can increase their milk production and delivery to the society and also be able to admit new members from its milk catchment area.
The Society’s by-laws currently state that they cannot sell raw milk and therefore they cannot receive more than the processing capacity. This creates the necessity of increasing processing capacity.
With production at about 170,000 litres of milk a day, Githunguri is Kenya’s third biggest dairy operation which made the dairy to be named the best cooperative society in the country during the recent Nairobi Agricultural Trade fair.
In July 2004 the society commissioned its own milk processing plant and was able to access wide market through value addition and wide range of dairy products. The investment resulted from members contributing Sh1 for every kg of milk sold.
The cooperative had a turnover of sh6.3 billion this financial year from Sh5.4 billion in previous financial year.