Brookside Dairy farmers get record Sh500m payout
Brookside Dairy quality assurance officers test raw milk from farmers delivering to a mobile cooler in Nakuru county.
Farmers contracted by milk processor Brookside Dairy were paid a record Sh500 million in the year to November 2024, a 41 percent increase from the previous year, under a scheme that rewards producers for product quality and exceeding supply targets.
“The beneficiary farmer groups and individual suppliers are those who 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 contract period,” said Mr Emmanuel Kabaki, Brookside’s general manager for milk procurement.
The scheme was introduced by Brookside about six years ago to recognise the critical role that raw milk suppliers play upstream in the dairy value chain. The payout has increased over the years as the processor's base of contracted farmers continues to grow. In the six months to May 31, 2024, Brookside's contracted farmers were paid Sh218 million under the Quality and Supply Target Reward Scheme—an increase of 53.5 percent on the same period last year.
Brookside has embarked on aggressive capacity-building programmes for farmers in key raw milk production areas as it seeks to increase volumes supplied to the company. Brookside said 160,000 dairy farmers have benefited from its advisory services this year alone, including field day training and demonstration farms to showcase best practices in dairy farming.
“The reward is a statement of our excellent working relationship with our 160,000 raw milk suppliers. It has boosted the supply of high-quality milk, thus enabling us to tap into a larger share of high-value products,” said Mr Kabaki.
