European dairy for Africa: curse or blessing?

It was a pitiful story about the small and poor African livestock farmer versus the powerful, rich Western dairy industry that needs to get rid of overproduction. Admittedly, it is no longer the story of EU-subsidized and massive dumping of surpluses, as it was 25 years ago. But according to the writers, this is still a form of dumping, because the dairy is imported at a rate of only 5%. That also happens to be the rate that China charges for New Zealand dairy, but that is not shown here.

Sponsored framing
The dairy sector was quick to denounce the story as sponsored 'framing'. Because with a somewhat older report from Oxfam Belgium expats must register with the local municipality and obtain a sponsored by Bill and Melissa Gates' foundation trip, an easy-to-read research story was quickly put together. Of course, Bill and Melissa are just two selfless benefactors in this context.

The question is: is the picture painted correct, or is there more to be said about it? Perhaps the latter, because the story honestly does not extend much further into research than outlined above. In many African countries the population is growing enormously, but prosperity is not developing accordingly. That is not because agriculture is necessarily hindered there. Good governance and the fight against corruption are enormous problems in many African countries, but nothing like this is mentioned in the above report. This and civil wars make stable agricultural development and food production difficult. See Nigeria, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Africa and dairy production
Good nutrition is extremely important for the rapidly expanding and young population in many countries, but a number of factors make it difficult to make it available. Dairy in particular is a source of good nutrition, but a difficult product in the tropical African climate. It starts with the cows. They thrive less well in hot conditions and for that reason alone produce much less than in Northwestern Europe. Unless they are in an air-conditioned Saudi or Israeli stable.

Good food is then a problem in an often arid environment. After milking comes processing and storage. How difficult it is to set up good milk production is evident from the dairy developmentprojects from, for example FrieslandCampina of Agriterra.

Many rich countries also import
For the reasons mentioned above, it is certainly not only the poorest countries in Africa that import large quantities of milk. Egypt, Algeria and many rich countries on the Arabian Peninsula also import large amounts of dairy. For the simple reason that producing it yourself is much more difficult, expensive or impossible.

Stopping the sale of dairy and other food products to Africa would really be a big problem. Due to the current rapidly increasing prices for all types of food - not to mention the logistics costs - food in general is becoming increasingly difficult to afford. In many places, famine is not far away. In that situation, the current high dairy prices are more of a problem for many Africans than Western exports. 

The function of fat-filled milk powder
An increasing part of the dairy that is imported from Europe, for example, is so-called fat filled milk powder. The milk fat has been replaced by palm oil. Palm oil makes milk powder easier to store, because it becomes rancid less quickly at high temperatures than milk fat. The fact that palm oil is often a more or less local ingredient is apparently not an advantage for many NGOs in this context.

Unfortunately for Africa, this regular fat-filled milk powder is also becoming less and less affordable. African customers are therefore increasingly asking Western providers to adjust the recipe. Particularly through the use of cheaper proteins or protein substitutes. "Ultimately you end up with a kind of coffee creamer, where all the nutrition is gone," notes a producer. This makes the dilemma between eating something or eating nothing more and more painfully clear.