Dairy farmers contracted by Brookside Dairy have been paid more than Sh142 million in cash bonuses under a scheme that rewards farmers across the country for milk quality and surpassing supply targets.
The bonus scheme was initiated by the processor five years ago and is leveraged on a quality-based pricing model which is influenced by aspects such as the amount of butterfat in a kilogramme of raw milk.
This was a shift from the old pricing model that relied on the weight of milk and did not fully reward farmers for high-quality husbandry.
Mr Emmanuel Kabaki, General Manager for milk procurement at Brookside, said yesterday the farmers were rewarded for meeting agreed milk supply targets in both quantity and quality.
“The beneficiary farmer groups and individual suppliers signed up for our reward scheme and were given raw milk supply targets, for both quantity and quality. We are rewarding these farmers as a recognition of their toil over the six months,” he said.
The bonus payouts will only benefit farmers who signed up for the quality milk programme and supplied the processor for the six months between December 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023.
The payout has been rising over the years, as the processor’s base of contracted farmers continues to grow.
160,000 raw milk suppliers
“The reward further cements our excellent working relationship with all our 160,000 raw milk suppliers across the country. The reward scheme has boosted the supply of high-quality milk, thus enabling us to tap into a larger share of high-value products,” Mr. Kabaki added.
Over time, the volumes and quality of milk supplied to the processor have continually grown, with this year’s intakes rising by 27 percent over volumes supplied at a similar time last year on better dairy practices by farmers.
The growth in milk volumes is also attributed to an aggressive farmer empowerment programme by the processor.
This year alone, over 6,000 dairy farmers have benefited from Brookside’s extension services, which include field day training and the use of demonstration farms to showcase best practices in the dairy enterprise.
The firm has also been working to improve corporate governance ethos in its milk supply groups, by training dairy co-operative officials on best management practices.
“The attribute of quality, for which our dairy products are known, cannot be achieved without the involvement of our farmers in the production and supply of quality raw milk,” Mr. Kabaki said.
He called on farmers to prioritise initiatives that encourage the growth of milk production, such as investment in year-long availability of fodder and water for dairy animals.
Brookside, which has a daily installed milk processing capacity of 1.5 million litres, has the largest raw milk supply footprint in the country, which spans from Taita Taveta in the Coast region to West Pokot.
