23 Mar 2016

Private public partnerships (PPP) play an important role as economic enablers, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Vincent Seretse has said.

Speaking during his tour of Milk Afric in Lobatse on Tuesday, Mr Seretse said the company would not only provide employment to residents but would also help the country to stimulate and strengthen the economy.

Minister Seretse said the country was hard hit by shortage of milk, adding that the country needed 65 million litres of raw milk a year and the bulk of that requirement was met by imports. 

He said Batswana had cattle but they could not meet the milk demands, therefore the country was forced to import milk and other milk processed products from South Africa thus increasing the importation bill.

He said the milk production at Milk Afric would assist to close the demand gap as well as reduce the country’s importation bill.

He also said the use of advanced technologies at Milk Afric would improve the milk production standards in order to compete with international markets.

Minister Seretse said, through the PPP model, they would  be able to expand different industries.

He said industries such as leather park and pasdec, that he said  were  already in the pipeline, were expected to promote economic development of Lobatse and the country at large.

For his part, Milk Afric chief executive also the founder, Mr Phil Matibe, said the project was advancing well as the ground breaking had long been done and tthey were at a stage of infrastructure construction such as calving units, staff houses and internal roads and pastures.

He said they were left with three months before they could  start milking the first 500 cows that he said were already in South Africa.

However, he mentioned that the milking parlour structure had been delayed because there was delay with the electricity connection as they had to wait for 90 days before they could be connected.

Mr Matibe also said they had employed about 100 people who were all Batswana and once the production was in full operation, the numbers would increase.

He also stated that 15 Batswana trainees were already in Florida for dairy management training.

He said 95 per cent of milk was imported from South Africa and when they are in full production, they would be able to reduce importation by 21 million litres of milk in their first year of production.

He also said Milk Afric had entered into a partnership with Parmalat as they would be providing it with 60 000 litres of milk per day.

He said through that partnership, they would be able to create jobs for Batswana as no more jobs will be exported to South Africa as milk processed products will be produced locally. Ends