His Excellency, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has officially commissioned Pearl Dairy Farms, Ltd, a state of the art dairy farm that manufactures Lato Milk. The commission was also graced by the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.
Speaking at the ceremony, the President Commended Pearl Dairy Farms for both its intensive financial investment in the country and the use of local labor in its operations.
“Uganda currently generates 2.2bn litres of milk but only consume 800m litres. We currently sell USD50m per year worth of milk, but with endeavors like this we shall certainly be making six times that (USD300m) in a few years. Surprisingly, we have been able to generate this much milk and yet feed our cattle rather sub-standard grass. If only our people could pay more attention to the type of grass they feed their cattle, we would be doing much better,” Museveni explained.
Pearl Dairy Farms Ltd, the agro arm of Midland Group is built on 15 acres of land with a daily milk processing capacity of 500,000 litres of milk. Pear; Dairies processes liquid milk to various types of dairy products namely Butter Oil, Ghee, Skimmed milk powder, full cream and other dairy products.
Midland Group started Pearl Dairies Ltd in 2013 and has for the past three years bought over 200million litres of milk from farmers by offering competitive prices amidst seasonal fluctuations and global dairy prices.
Bhasker Kotecha, the Founder and Chairman of Midland Group of Companies expressed his gratitude to the different stakeholders who have played “…pivotal roles…” in the success of the Company.
“Pearl Dairy Farms is thankful to the Government of Uganda under the leadership of His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for the conducive and attractive policies; both investment and economic that have enabled Pearl Dairy exist and flourish in Uganda,” he said.
“Furthermore, the ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and the Dairy Development Authority have been pivotal with continued guidance. Last but not least, the farmers that have consistently supplied us with high quality milk consistently without waiver- we are eternally grateful,” Kotecha, added.
Devendra Seth, the Company’s Managing Director said they will continue to provide trainings to farmers and cooperative societies and on strategies to stimulate milk consumption.
As part of their quality control measures, Pearl Diaries Limited has also distributed over 2000 milk cans to farmers at no profit in order to ensure clean milk transportation from the farm to the factory. Pearl Dairies Farms Ltd also shares best practices with farmers in milking, milk handling and hygiene.