Stakeholders in dairy production have called for a zero tax administration on dairy equipment to help boost the quality and quantity of dairy products.
The stakeholders made the call on Wednesday at the 2022 summit on National Livestock Transformation Plan(NLTP) organised by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with Agriculture Correspondents of Nigeria (ACAN) in Abuja.
Dr Jimmy Johnmark, General Manager, Arla Farm, noted that milk consumption and production were low in the country.
“Nigeria currently produces less than 10 per cent of what is currently consumed because there was no enough equipment to boost production that will satisfy demand,” he said.
Johnmark appealed to the government to step in to encourage the production and processing of dairy products, by making it easy to access the equipment at a low price.
He said the high tax on the equipment contributed significantly to the low quality of dairy products because most people tended to cut corners due to the high tax placed on the equipment.
“Most of the dairy equipment are not produced locally, and we need to import a lot of these things to be able to function in that industry,” he said.
He said milk was one of the most difficult food items to handle as it could easily spoil if the right equipment was not used.
Johnmark also call for more establishment of milk processing centers in each state of the federation, while the old ones were rehabilitated.
He said the establishment of more centres would contribute to empowerment, improve the value chain and eliminate waste.
Prof. Demo kalla, a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, said there was a need to encourage local fabrication of dairy equipment to reduce imports and to have more milk aggregators in the dairy clusters to facilitate milk collection.
“Our priority is to increase the flow of milk in Nigeria, stop importation, help reduce the high cost of the product and make it available to Nigerians.
Mrs Victoria Uwadoka, an official of Nestlé Nigeria, in her presentation, called on FMARD and the Ministry of Interior to strengthen agro rangers to help mitigate security challenges where some processing centres are.
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She said there was a need for livestock regulatory agencies to track the slaughtering and movement of any animal for proper traceability of dairy animals. (NAN)
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