Uganda earned Shs 750 billion from milk exports in 2020

Uganda’s revenue from export of dairy products has risen from $131.5m (Shs 480bn) in 2018 to $205m ( Shs 750bn) in 2020 according to records from the Dairy Development Authority (DDA).

This was revealed by Dr. Michael Kansiime, the executive director, DDA during a virtual orientation meeting with Frank Tumwebaze, the new Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.

DDA is the government agency mandated to develop and regulate the dairy industry and has a core objective to provide proper coordination and efficient implementation of all government policies.

Kansiime noted that exported dairy products include casein, protein powder and milk powder, among others.

Exports mainly go to regional markets of UAE, Syria, Japan, Oman, USA, Nepal and Bangladesh. He attributed this to increased compliance of Uganda’s milk and milk products.

He explained that the country’s overall value of marketed milk stands at approximately $850 million (Shs 3.1 trillion), which is 80.2% of the total milk produced.

"The sector is one of the leading agricultural commodity export income earners second to coffee and slowly edging its way to be the leading agricultural export earner in the country," he noted.

Milk production in the country has increased from 2.5 billion litres in 2018 to 2.8 billion litres in 2020, a rise that is attributed to the expansion of milk collection centres across the country.

Currently, there are 483 milk collection centres countrywide with a total installed capacity of 1,938,522 litres

These centres are operated by dairy cooperatives, private individuals, companies, and processors.

On his part, Tumwebaze encouraged the DDA technical team to push for the industrialisation of the sub sector in order to boost dairy processing within the next three years.