In my last trip to Ethiopia, we stopped in Agula, a town on our way to the site. We stopped at the small milk cooperative, that had 28 members. They collect milk every day, homogenize it and bring it to Mekelle the biggest town situation less than one hour away by car
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| list of cooperative members |
We arrived on a fasting day : Ethiopian orthodox no not consume any animal sourced product on Wednesday and Friday, 40 days before Easter and Christmas and some other weeks. During fasting period, animal sourced food is not allowed to be shown in public. So when we arrived we only found a small boy. Business is low, and adults are busy bringing the milk and other dairy product away.
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| the boy we interviewed |
The fasting brings many challenges to dairy production? how to store all the milk for 40 days? We learned from the boy he milk price reduces by 2 birr per litre (corresponding to a 20% price drop). But the demand does not disappear totally, there are sufficient non orthodox people and hotels that continue consuming milk. The rest is processed into butter.
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| machine used for milk homogenization |
It is challenging to set up a value chain around animal sourced food where at least 4 months a year demand is collapsing...
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| the cooperative collection point |
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