The Sameer Group of Kenya, in conjunction
with the RJ Corp. of India, established a joint venture
company, Sameer Agriculture & Livestock Ltd, which
entered into an agreement with the government of Uganda
which took effect on the 1st August 2006 to lease the
assets of the Dairy Corporation in Kampala.
Sameer Group is a leading economic force in East Africa,
with major investments and successful operating companies
in all key business sectors. website:Sameer
Group
The RJ Corp has for over twenty years been a major player
in the food and beverages industry in India. RJ Corp's
expertise in the dairy industry is based on many years
of experience operating in a country that is the largest
milk producer worldwide and has long established milk
networks. website: RJ
Corp Group
Mission
To provide high quality products & contribute
towards improved nutritional standards.
Vision
To be the market leader in Dairy industry. Uganda
is uniquely positioned among other countries with its
rich soils and the capacity to produce high quality
milk and being surrounded by countries who are offering
huge market is set to become a milk hub for the COMESA
region.
Achievements to date
The company now aims at stabilizing the existing production
level which has grown from 50,000 to 120,000 litres
of milk per day. Infact, SALL has injected about 11.5million
dollars to boost the dairy sector through:
- Adding capacity to milk Collection through installation
of Milk Coolers in the south western & now the
central regions of Uganda.
- Adding on the number of Milk Tankers to improve
on the transportation of raw milk to the processing
plant in Kampala.this has enabled the number of raw
milker tankers raise from 9 to 16
- Milk Powder Plant; SALL has invested close to 15
million Dollars in the establishment of a milk drying
plant with capacity to handle 200,000 litres of milk
daily which has started production.
Supporting the farmers
Sameer Agriculture and Livestock Ltd has a network
of over 114 raw milk Coolers from the district cooperatives
mainly in western and Central Uganda where farmers bring
milk to these collection centres. Coolers, Testing Kits,
Generators are fully supplied and serviced by SALL
and trains farmers in hygienic practices of milk handling
and collection. The farmers are actively involved in
the marketing of their milk through Unions which deliver
raw milk to milk collection centres. The collection
centres have coolers and generators installed by SALL.
Currently, SALL has 75(Sixty Three) raw milk coolers
installed mainly in the Western and central Uganda.
The number has been increased so as to cover other parts
of the country. At the collection centres, the milk
is chilled at 40C and thereafter transported to the
Bulking Centres which are manned by the Co-operatives.
Once again, the raw milk is chilled and transported
by SALL’s insulated milk tankers to Kampala plant. Improvement
of the raw milk quality and maintaining it all the way
to the final product is an important consideration by
SALL. To this effect, the Unions and Co-operatives are
regularly supplied with milk Testing Kits and the farmers
trained in hygienic practices of milk handling and collection.
Prospects
- By the end of 2008,SALL should be processing over
300,000 litres of raw milk-
- Installation of a powdered milk plant has boosted
the capacity to take up the surplus milk during the
rainy season
- 175,000 litres of processed milk a day
- Increase the production of UHT Milk which lasts
up-to 9 months as compared to liquid milk which lasts
for 3 days
- Introduction of a Tetrafino a new and 30% cheaper
packaging material compared to Tetrapak hence reducing
the cost price of the end product this has been implemented
and the Fino milk brand is on sale now.
- Avail the product in all corners of the country.
- SALL is looking at increasing the volumes of value
added products like Yoghurt, Ghee, Butter, etc.
- The company has also automated the milk processing
in order to process over 300,000 litres of all the
milk products a day.
- Investing in more Distribution channel facilities
for example installing branded thermal freezer, and
insulated boxes in Kampala and Jinja, Fresh Dairy
Kiosks are being implemented.
- Supporting Government efforts in promoting the safe
to drink milk as opposed to unprocessed milk. this
has enabled SALL to carry out milk in schools campaign
awareness
Export Market
The company is already exporting milk products to
Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mauritius and Southern Sudan.
COMESA is already short of milk therefore there's a
huge potential in 24 countries in the COMESA region.
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