Brookside Dairy raises its milk producer prices to Sh36 per kg

Brookside Dairy has increased raw milk prices by an additional shilling for every kilo to cushion farmers from effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

The milk processor Monday said it will from Wednesday start paying Sh36 per kilo from the current Sh35.

Kenya has confirmed 50 cases of the Covid-19 and the economy has taken a hit on effects of the pandemic, including restrictions on gathering, shutdown of hotels and bars, travel restrictions and a night curfew. Brookside Dairy says the rise in producer prices will lift farmers’ cash flow amid reduced business activities.

“We decided to increase farm-gate prices of milk that will not only boost the dairy farming businesses but also help minimise the negative financial impacts of the current Covid — 19, which is also affecting the dairy farming community,” said Brookside’s director of milk procurement and manufacturing, Mr John Gethi in a statement.

The latest price increase comes less than two months after the processor that controls 40 percent of the national raw milk market, effected a Sh7 per kilo rise that benefited its 160,000 farmers countrywide.

On Monday, Mr Gethi told farmers to use the extra income to invest in animal feed management.