•Retailers have reported a shortage in supply with the few stocks available being sold at increased prices.
•According to the Retail Trade Association of Kenya (Retrak), retailers are getting slightly above 50 per cent of the orders issued.
Milk prices have gone up as a shortage of supply from dairy farmers shortage is felt across the country.
A spot check by the Star yesterday established that a 500ml packet of fresh Brookside milk is retailing at Sh 60, up from Sh 52.
New KCC is going for Sh 53 from Sh 50, Ilara Sh 53 from Sh 48 while the long-life brands are retailing at Sh55 and upwards in supermarkets.
Shopkeepers on the other hand are now selling long-life milk for Sh60 from Sh55, while the fresh one is going for Sh55 from Sh50 .
The fall in production has been linked to the extended dry weather and a ban of milk imports from neighbouring Uganda, imposed by the government in 2019.
Stores are fast running out of stocks.
Nimrod Okello, an attendant at Careffour Supermarket said the Brookside brand, a favorite for many shoppers, gets sold out within three hours of supply, as people buy in bulk forcing them to ratio amounts purchased.
“We get at least 100 cartons which are equivalent to 1,200 pieces and it is cleared within three hours, so we have been forced to ration whereby one customer can only get one carton at a time,” Okello said.
Retailers have reported a shortage in supply with the few stocks available being sold at increased prices.
According to the Retail Trade Association of Kenya (Retrak), retailers are getting slightly above 50 per cent of the orders issued.
"It is pretty bad," Retrak CEO Wambui Mbarire told the Star on the telephone yesterday, hoping the weather will improve to help turn around the current situation.
New KCC, a key player in the industry, could not be reached for comment as our calls and text messages to the managing director Nixon Sigey went unanswered.
Kenya Dairy Board managing director Margaret Kibogy had also not responded the Star's inquiry on the shortage by the time of going to press.
Kenyans have taken to social media platforms to express their frustrations.
“There is a looming extreme shortage of milk in the country. Things are about to get from worse to worst,” @_KevinKip tweeted.
"Sahizi bora chai, sio lazima chai bora (For now what matters is tea irrespective of the milk quantity in it),” Michael Njoroge, a Nairobi resident we met shopping for milk at the Naivas Supermarket's Westlands branch said.
Milk production in Kenya is largely undertaken by smallholder dairy farmers through open grazing, zero grazing, and semi zero-grazing.
Productivity per cow per day remains low (7-9 litres per day), according to the dairy board, mainly due to poor feeding, among other poor animal husbandry practices.
Production is estimated at 5.2 billion litres per year (from cattle, camels, goats, and sheep).
KDB has licensed 29 milk processors, and 67 mini dairies.
The total milk processing capacity is approximately 3.75 million litres per day with approximately 46 per cent of this capacity utilised annually.
Production is expected to grow from the current 5.2 billion litres to 12 billion litres in 2030, with growth in milk intake to the formal sector projected to rise to 1 billion litres in 2022, from the current 630 million litres.