AGRI-HUB TANZANIA REPORT: DAIRY BUSINESS PLATFORM, TANGA September, 2014 (Final Draft)

Katarina Mungure – Agri-Hub Tanzania

Executive Summary

The 15th and 16th August, 2014 marked another important milestone for the Tanga Dairy Platform stakeholders

in Tanga region, as they met to do business, exchange knowledge and advocate for a conducive environment for

Dairy development on a well-organized and highly interactive setting. Apart from the 33 exhibitors who attended

the Dairy Business Platform, there were a number of side events such as seminars on Dairy Farming as a

business and best practices in animal husbandry, sessions on presentation of policy issues affecting Dairy

farmers and Dairy businesses in the region, together with the launch of the school milk program to promote

increased milk consumption among school children.

The Minister of Livestock and Fisheries development, Hon. Titus Kamani officiated forum and among other

things, urged the co-organizers to organize more similar platforms for business and knowledge exchange among

dairy value chain actors.

The dairy farmers offered interesting feedback regarding this dairy business platform, one of the farmers was

quoted saying that, ‘’this event has directly linked me to professional veterinary service providers, back in my

village, the vet dealers will only sell to me dairy input without professional advise on how best to use it, but the

dealers in this event even went a step further to advise me on what was best for my cattle and because of that, I

have collected as much contacts as I could for more business and professional advice in the future’’.

It was also a platform for research institutes to show Dairy farmers what they had in store for them, for

instance, LITA BUHURI has started a new Artificial Insemination department and they were eager to introduce

this service to the dairy farmers, as the person in charge for the department was quoted saying ‘’we need

platforms like these to tell farmers about our latest services’’, we hope that the start of this department will

solve the long standing issues of inaccessible A.I that constrained Dairy farmers from expanding their Dairy

businesses or new entrants from investing in the sector due to the lack of good breeds of Dairy cows.

It was interesting to see the participants using the Dairy Business Platform to present several policy issues that

have been hampering the development of the Dairy sector in the region, among the issues presented to the

regulatory bodies were, price competitiveness of Dairy products in the market, the absence of reliable Artificial

Insemination service centres in the region and the participants also showed their concerns on the existing village

land use plans which appear to be threatening the future of animal husbandry due to the rapid growth of

population which has not been favoring the ongoing cattle keeping activities.

The co-organisation process of this dairy platform was interesting, since, contrary to our belief that the private

sector was mostly interested to participate in events rather than get involved in the organizing process, this

time, the private sector actors took lead in putting together this fair and have clearly committed their continued

involvement in organizing similar fairs in the future for Dairy farmers in Tanga region.

Agri-Hub Tanzania, extends it heartfelt gratitude to all the co-organizers including Agri-care enterprises, Tanga

Fresh Limited, The representatives of Dairy farmers in Tanga from Pongwe and Pangani, SNV and the Tanga

Regional Commissioner’s office for their tireless efforts in organizing the first Tanga Dairy Business Platform

which made this event a success.

The main areas that need improvements in the coming finance fairs are; - Publicity of the event

- Dairy Farmers mobilization to attend the fair

- Resource mobilization, i.e. Both Financial and human resources

Introduction

- Back ground

Agri-Hub Tanzania joined hands with the Tanga Dairy Platform and SNV to co-organize a Dairy Business Platform

so as to broker business relations between Dairy farmers and Service providers along the Dairy value chain such

as Dairy Input dealers, financial service providers, Research institutes Training Agency, Animal Feeds dealers,

Artificial Inseminators, Dairy Processors Mass media networks and Solar and biogas energy service providers.

The fair received a total of about 550 adult visitors and 960 school children who attended the fair to mark the

launch of the school milk program aimed to promote consumption of milk among school children. There was a

total of 33 exhibitors with the categories listed above.

Objective of the fair;

General objective;

To improve dairy farmers’ access to professional support services in dairy farming

Specific objectives;

To link dairy farmers with professional service providers in the agriculture, livestock and financial sectors

To set the stage for dairy farmers to enter into contracts with the relevant service providers so that they

may build sustainable and modern dairy businesses

To offer a neutral platform for learning from dairy experts and successful dairy farmers

To expose the relevant service providers to the business opportunities that available in the Dairy sector

in Tanga region and henceforth, attract more investment for their support services in the region.

The organizing committee; it was composed of members from the Tanga Dairy Platform including Tanga Fresh

Limited, Agri-Care Enterprises, Tanga Livestock Reseach Institute (TALIRI) and Livestock Training Agency (LITA)

BUHURI Capus, SNV and Agri-Hub Tanzania. Financial contributions came from SNV and were matched by Agri-

ProFocus, the rest of the committee members contributed their man-days, fuel and stationery.

During the development of the concept, Dairy farmers were also involved.

The composition was as follows;

The organisations of the organising committee are:

The organisations of the organising committee are:

- Tanga Fresh Limited (1 staff) – Charles Tumaini

- Agri-Care Enterprises (1 staff) – Julius Shoo

- Tanga Livestock Reseach Institute (TALIRI) (1 staff) – Flora Lukindo

- Livestock Training Agency (LITA) BUHURI Capus, (1 staff) – John Mnyikas

- SNV (1 staff) – Tom Ole Sikar

- APF (1 staff) – Katarina Mungure

The organizing process

The organisation started in May, 2014, and the date of the fair was set for the 15th and 16th of August, 2014, the

three month period offered the organizers ample time to prepare and organize the event. The organizers worked

on recruiting the exhibitors together with mobilizing farmers and preparing the logistics of the event.

Event Publicity

Publicity of the event began in April, 2014 during the Tanga Dairy Platform quarterly meeting and was

continuously publicized during the training conducted by SNV to 18 Milk Collection Centres. Moreover, every

primary society in the region received an invitation letter to the event. Apart from these methods, the committee

also employed the following strategies in publicizing the event;

i) Newspaper (Mwananchi)

ii) Radio adverts (Mwambao FM)

iii) Online advertising

iv) Road banners

v) Roadshows

vi) Word of mouth

vii) Emails

viii) Physical distribution of letters

However, during the evaluation, the organising committee came up with two options for increasing the

attendance of farmers in the future fairs, as follows;

1. Suggest to the Tanga Dairy Cooperative Union (TDCU) to include a budget for every primary society to

facilitate 20 dairy farmers to attend the next organized fair.

2. Fund raise from the exhibitors and other potential companies and use part of the income obtained to facilitate

transport for dairy farmers to attend the fair.

Description of the activity The fair was held at the Tanga Fresh Company and it lasted for two days i.e. 15th and 16th of August, 2014.

The event was officially opened by the Minister forLivestock and Fisheries Development, Hon. Dr.Titus Kamani

who paid a visit to most of the stalls where exhibitors made presentations on their different product and

services.

A total of 10 journalists were present at the fair ground, accompanying the Minister’s delegation and did

coverage of the event.

The exhibitions went hand in hand with seminars on Dairy Farming as a business and Best practices in animal

husbandry. An actor’s meeting was held on the first day of the fair to discuss policy issues affecting dairy

farmers in Tanga was held, among the issues presented to the policy makers included; Limited access to land for

dairy farming whereas, actors requested the government to allow dairy farmers to use idle sisal farms,

construction of a liquid nitrogen plant to facilitate the effectiveness of A.I services, they also the government to

regulate fair competition in the processed milk market as of now the prices offered by some processors are

threatening the market for Dairy farmers in Tanga. Details of this meeting are attached in Annex 1 of this report.

The Regional Administrative Secretary of Tanga closed the event on the 16th August, 2014, whereas, he

presented each exhibitor with a certificate and also announced and awarded the winners of the school milk

program.

Analysis of attendance

The number of visitors was derived from the completed registration forms that were administered during the fair.

In addition a survey was conducted with 120 respondents. The survey was conducted using a mobile phone

survey technology known as AKVO, which eased the data collection and analysis exercise and also improved

accuracy in data recording.

Generally, 68% of the adult participants who attended the fair were Dairy farmers, this is in line with our

expectations which mainly targeted dairy farmers. At least 53% of the participants prepared themselves to

attend the fair by either bringing a copy of a business plan, mobilizing other farmers to attend the fair or

bringing information about their activities and/or businesses.

Moreover, 98% of the interviewed participants stated that the event lived up to their expectations. The main

stated reason for attending the fair was to acquire information and knowledge on Dairy farming as a business,

whereas, about 68% of participants mentioned this as their main reason for attending the fair, to realize this

objective, at the end of the two days, 94% of the participants stated that they had acquired new knowledge on

How to increase milk production and quality, How to run and improve their businesses, how to write a business

plan, How to market and increase sales and How to improve services, this was achieved by, either interacting

with each other, interacting with exhibitors and also from the seminars offered during the fair.

As a result of attending the fair, 71% of the participants acquired new business contacts of mostly between 1 to

5 people. The most acquired contacts were those of Producer organisations/farmer groups, followed by those of

Dairy Input suppliers. About 82% of those who acquired contacts have secured follow-up appointments with

these new contacts so as to further discuss the possibilities and parameters within which they can collaborate.

Moreover, about 10 of the interviewed participants have reported to have made deals with financial service

providers, mainly on loans/credit, opening savings account and insurance.

A more insightful description of the analysis given above is presented in annex 2 of this report;

Lessons learnt:

- The coming fair days should not be set close to the Nanenane or Sabasaba celebrations, some exhibitors

declined the invitation to attend the fair due to this. The ideal time as suggested by organizers is in September.

- Farmers from other districts should be mobilized to attend the fair, the committee should use the resources

from exhibitors and other potential stakeholders such as to arrange for transport.

- The committee should not target the high central government officials, since their visits tend to be associated

with an extensive program that affects the fair.

Areas for improvement - The resources within the organizing committee are not enough to cover all the costs emerging during the

organizing process. The organizing committee will therefore devise creative ways to mobilize resources for the

fair through the exhibitors and other potential sponsors for sustainability and resource efficiency reasons.

- We need to strengthen and expand the Publicity committee for the event so that more potential stakeholders

and farmers can get on board.

- There should be special committees/teams for each logistical arrangement, so as to reduce the work load and

increase efficiency

- The fair should be cross cutting to Animal and Crop farmers but at least 70% should be dairy farmers.

- The work plan should be well communicated among the committee members and the responsible persons

should also carry out their duties effectively and timely.

- The service providers contracted should be examined for quality service provision, for example, the tents

provided were torn and not up to good standards.

- The Guest of honour should come from Tanga region so as to be able to regulate the event program

- The exhibitors list should be reviewed and updated to reflect all the actors along the dairy value chain including

infrastructure service providers, this will also help to make the fair more lively and capture visitors attendance

and interest.

Conclusion and acknowledgements

In general, the fair was a successful one, a total of 33 exhibitors attended the fair, including Diary Input service

providers, financial service providers, Government institutions, processors, A.I service providers, Heifer breeders

and Renewable energy service providers. Besides the AKVO feedback, committee members spoke to exhibitors

who confirmed to do good business during the fair and also build good networks for future collaboration with

other fair participants. Dairy farmers from Tanga and Manyara on the other hand stated that the fair has added a

wealth of knowledge on Dairy farming as a business and they have also accessed Dairy Input at better prices

compared to the ones offered in their areas of locality.

Annex 1:

Tanga Dairy Platform

Minutes of the

Dairy business platform actors meeting

The Guest of Honour opened the meeting by indicating that the livestock sector contributes significantly to the

country’s economy and she congratulated the organizers of the fair for the good fair that they had put together.

The meeting was opened at 5:30pm

Feedback from the fair; (Guest of Honour)

- In the coming fairs invite Tanzania Investment Bank because they have an agri-finance window.

- Invite the service providers who attended the fair to the coming Tanga Dairy Platform meetings.

- Invite more agribusiness dealers in the coming fairs

Feedback of the fair from the Dairy actors

Tanzania Dairy Board (D. Mlay)

-Mobilize more dairy farmers to attend the fair.

-The fair has offered learning opportunities on production, finance and biogas

-District councils should also participate in the upcoming fairs.

-Tanzania Dairy Board commends the fair organisation.

Mtandaao wa vikundi vya wafugji Korogwe Magharibi (MVIWAKOMA)-J. DUNGUMARO

- Congratulated the organization of the fair

- Urged dairy farmers to be further mobilized to attend the fair

-suggested that first aid services should be readily available.

-advised that there should be an ncrease in the number of food service providers.

ULTRAVETIS (LaageMungaya)

- Congratulated the organization of the fair

- Advised the inclusion of prizes for farmers so as to encourage participation and production

- Encouraged companies to offer training to increase milk production

- Advised the involvement of all actors in the event organization process

- Collect visitors’ feedback through questionnaires.

Umoja Wafugaji Korogwe (UWAKO - Filbert Rwehumbiza)

-Congratulated the organization of the fair

-commented thatdairy farmers have benefited from the training and business done during the event

-Remarked tat mobilization of dairy farmers should be increased

-Isuggested that the number of fair days be increased.

Tanzania Domestic Biogas (Grace Muro)

-The next fair should be held in town where most people will attend.

Huruma Mhapa from Njombe

-Good feeds are the basis of stabilized and quality milk production-

-She also gave a testimony of her feed business, whereas, she makes up to 800,000 TZS of profit per acre form

growing grass and up to 600,000 TZS per month from milk sales. Annually, she makes about 13,000,000 Million

TZS from the sale of feeds.

Tanzania Veterinary Laboratories Agency (TVLA-AlliFusa

There are very few professional A.I service providers

FARMER CENTRE (Mruma)

-He congratulated the fair organizers

-Contracts should be made between the Dairy input service providers and Dairy farmers through their primary

societies.

Resolutions;

-Actors agreed to jointly ask the government to allow them access to the Sisal farms that are not being used to

be divided amongst dairy farmers

-A liquid nitrogen plant should be set up in Tanga.

-Price competition in the processed milk market should be regulated. Tanzania Dairy Board reported to have

started this process and gave insights of how they are also working on improving the quality if milk available in

the country.

-Public-Private Partnership should be implemented amongst the Dairy actors in Tanga region.

A.O.B

ILRI was conducting a survey on the channels of communication used by the Platform actors; The responses

were as follows;

-Training sessions for agro-dealers, extensionists and Dairy farmers

-Visiting customers (field days)

-Websites and emails

-communication materials such as fliers, banners

-Face to face meetings

-Scientific presentation conferences

-Radio programs

-Trade fairs e.g. Nanenane, Sabasaba

Annex 2: Analysis of survey results from the Tanga Dairy Business Platform

What is your profession / who do you work for?

Frequency Percent

Knowledge / education / training institute 3 2%

Agro-equipment dealer 8 7%

Dairy input supplier (A.I, veterinary medicine etc.) 12 10%

Government (official) 2 2%

Buyer / trader / processor 7 6%

Financial service provider (Bank/MFI/Insurance/Investor) 4 3%

Development agency / NGO 2 2%

Dairy farmer 82 68%

Total 120

Do you belong to a farmer group?

Frequency Percent

Yes 47 57%

No 35 43%

Total 82

What was your role at this event?

Frequency Percent

Speaker / presenter 1 1%

Organizer 1 1%

Visitor 84 70%

Exhibitor 34 28%

Total 120

How did you learn about the event

Frequency Percent

message 2 2%

poster 1 1%

Friend / colleague / my (farmer) organisation 8 6%

Media (newspaper / radio / flyer / banners etc.) 39 30%

Invitation 76 58%

posters 1 1%

PA 2 2%

Internet 1 1%

Total 130

What was your reason for attending

Frequency Percent

To make linkages with other organisations / find business partners 19 16%

To “sell” my products/services 15 12%

public awareness 1 1%

Bring my students to the event and also to gain knowledge together with my student 1 1%

to give knowledge to people as university teacher concerning animal a healthy 1 1%

giving knowledge to farmers 1 1%

To get information / increase knowledge 81 68%

to educate dairy farmers on good animal feeds and good breeds.

1 1%

Total 120

Did you prepare for the event

Frequency Percent

I prepared with colleagues / fellow farmers / support agency 37 31%

Brought copy of business plan 9 8%

I did not prepare myself- I just came 57 48%

Brought information about my services / business 17 14%

Total 120

Have you made any new business contacts

Frequency Percent

Yes 85 71%

No 35 29%

Total 120

If Yes, how many?

Frequency Percent

1 - 5 33 39%

5 - 10 25 29%

10 - 50 15 18%

50 - 100 8 9%

100 - 500 4 5%

Total 85

With whom?

Frequency Percent

Knowledge / education / training institute 6 5%

Dairy Input supplier 30 25%

Agro-equipment dealer 19 16%

Producer organisation / farmer group 37 31%

Buyer / trader / processor 14 12%

Development agency / NGO 5 4%

Financial service provider (Bank/MFI/Insurance/Investor) 10 8%

Total 121

Did you make any follow-up appointments with these

contacts

Frequency Percent

Yes 70 82%

No 15 18%

Total 85

If yes, how many

Frequency Percent

1 - 5 25 36%

5 - 10 27 39%

10 - 50 15 21%

More than 50 3 4%

Total 70

With Whom

Frequency Percent

Knowledge / education / training institute 5 5%

Input supplier (seed- feed- fertilizer etc.) 26 25%

Agro-equipment dealer 16 16%

Producer organisation / farmer group 27 26%

Buyer / trader / processor 14 14%

Development agency / NGO 4 4%

Financial service provider (Bank/MFI/Insurance/Investor) 11 11%

Total 103

In case a deal was made with or by a financial service

provider / what did it involve

Frequency Percent

A loan / Credit 5 50%

Opening a savings account 3 30%

Insurance 2 20%

Total 10

What is the total estimated value of the deals you made with these organisations / companies?

Frequency Percent

Between Tsh. 86,000 - 430,000 2 7%

N/A 20 74%

Between Tsh. 430,000 – 860,000 2 7%

Between Tsh. 860,000 - 4.3 Million 3 11%

Total 27

Did you gain new knowledge / insights?

Frequency Percent

Yes 113 94%

No 7 6%

Total 120

What type of knowledge

Frequency Percent

How to increase crop / product yield 23 20%

How to improve crop / product quality 26 23%

How to improve (running) my business (plan) 14 12%

How to market / increase my sales 24 21%

How to improve my services 26 23%

Total 113

Did the event live up to your expectations?

Frequency Percent

Only average 5 4%

Completely 58 48%

Satisfactory 57 48%

Total 120

Gender

Frequency Percent

Female 33 28%

Male 87 72%

Total 120

Age

Frequency Percent

< 25 yrs 6 5%

25 - 50 yrs 81 68%

> 50 yrs 33 28%

Total 120

Are you a member of Agri-ProFocus Agri-Hub Frequency Percent

Yes 10 38%

No 16 62%

Total 26

Can we contact you at a later moment for more information

Frequency Percent

Yes 119 99%

No 1 1%

Total 120

Annex 3: Pictures