Rits Wijmenga, Sr. Business Analyst Cheese, Butter & Milkpowder at FrieslandCampina, went to Kenya for Agriterra and wrote a blog about his experiences.
“At the moment we (business advisor Wilfred Chepkwnoy and I) are doing a Company assessment in the Uasin Gishu Area near by the town of Eldoret in Kenya. The Company is named Tarakwo Dairies Limited.
Tarakwo Dairies has operated as a bulk milk supplier for three years and is now diversifying its operations to include milk retailing. Tarakwo has to increase its sales revenues and profits through the introduction of a retail channel in its business that will eventually shift its primary market from bulk chilled milk sales to large processors to direct sales of dairy products to a wide range of customers.
Tarakwo setup this year a dispensing retail outlet at the heart of the Eldoret market with an aim to serve and meet the increasing demand for healthy milk products and satisfy the local milk consumers’ needs and preferences while at the same time improving its bottom line. They have plan to expand that to 5 and later to 10 retail shops.
Now we have done 2 days of interviews and farmer visits in the surrounding of the chilling plant. We received a lot of information and also a lot of non-spoken impressions. The meetings we have are interlaced with a lot of knowledge about the business and there future goals. So we are really impressed about that.
Also the welcome was really warm and they providing all the information we are asking for (that is quite a lot).
When Dairy technologists become acquainted we always have common subjects to discuss about. Especially when we are able to have a look in their plant. The General Manager is a experienced dairy technologist, so we have a lot of topics to talk about.
Till now it is a very good and pleasant assessment.”
Rits Wijmenga
FrieslandCampina
