Milk production throughout the country remains in deficit by 120,000 tons of milk per year
According to the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, fresh milk production in Cameroon witness a 12-percent drop between 2020 and 2021.
This means that production went from 187,873 tons in 2020 to 166,132 tons in 2021, giving a drop of 21,741 tons.
This decline could be justified by a sharp drop in production observed in the North, Adamawa and Far North regions.
This information is contained in the Ministry’s annual report on livestock, fisheries and animal industries sub-sector in 2021.
“Regardless of the quarter, quarterly milk production in 2021 remained lower than that of 2020. The production peak for both years is recorded in the third quarter,” the document informs.
This drop could be justified by a drop in production observed in the three regions of milk production in Cameroon.
In detail, production in the North Region alone amounts to 86,050 tons in 2021, against 97,356 tons in 2020, that is, a drop of 12 percent. Then in the Adamawa Region with 40,194 tons of milk against 52,665 tons the year before, a decrease of 24 percent. Finally, in the Far North Region, production fell by 17 percent from 18,425 tons in 2020 to 15,320 tons the following year.
Regarding the production of the rest of the country, 6,271 tons of fresh milk was produced in the East, 5,646 tons in the West, 3,844 tons in the Centre. Low milk production this year was recorded in the Littoral Regions with 837 tons, the South West with 147 tons and the South zero tons.
Although for 2021, these figures are down, it must be said that recurrently milk production remains in deficit by 120,000 tons of milk per year. To succeed in making up for the deficit created by the country, it resorts to imports. In 2021, therefore, Cameroon imported "milk, powder or concentrate" in the order of 19,438 tons for a value of FCFA 32.929 billion.
To reverse this trend, government has set up several programmes. Among these is the Livestock Development Project (PRODEL) financed by the World Bank. Thanks to this project, Cameroon imported 495 cows of a new breed. The choice of these high-performance cows is explained by their easy adaptation to harsh climatic conditions on the one hand, and their production capacity on the other. The average daily production of the new breed is estimated at 30 litres, or five times more than the Cameroonian breeds, which is 6 litres.
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