Windhoek
The Dairy Producers Association (DPA) has pointed out that various factors contribute to the fact that local milk is more expensive than imported milk after it was reported last week that the local dairy industry is under great pressure due to the import of cheap milk from South Africa.
The DPA says milk in Namibia is not exempted from VAT and Namibian milk must be free of hormones and antibiotics (in contrast to South African dairy producers who may use hormones (rBST) and antibiotics (eg monensin) which improves the feed turnover with 9% and thus reduce the feeding costs substantially). Furthermore the feed for milk cows is imported from South Africa and the consumer mainly has to pay for these transport costs.
Should the dairy industry be closed, it would have a big impact on the economy, namely the closure of!Aimab SuperFarm at Mariental and other milk farms, loss of the dairy industry and thus income for the country and job losses. The consumer mainly looks at the price of a product and not at factors such as hormone and antibiotic free milk, but the DPA hopes that Namibian products are bought, regardless of the price difference, but for the survival of this industry.
“Something which is to be remembered – if the local competition is lost, the importers will not hesitate to increase the price of the imported products. Then there is no more cheap milk,” the DPA says.