Georgia – The crucial link of the dairy chain
Giorgi Kochlamazashvili is looking after one of the cattle herds in Bodbe, a small village in the Kakheti region in Georgia. He is the first link in a chain that eventually leads to the consumers of dairy products in the big cities.
As in most Georgian villages, each farmer owns one or two cows. Here in the Kakheti region, there is an ancient tradition of herding each others cattle according to a complex scheme, based on how many cattle you own. In Bodbe, there are 11 herds with a total of 1 200 cattle.
One of the major difficulties for the Georgian dairy farmers has been the lack of a secure and consistent possibility to trade milk. The lack of such a possibility has led to that most farmers produce milk only for their personal needs. Any surplus milk has been converted to cheese and sold on the city markets under no hygiene supervision whatsoever.
The Sida financed project in Georgia is trying to find means to strengthen this crucial link in the dairy chain. If this succeeds, farmers will be able to deliver milk all year round, the dairies would not have to import milk powder to produce their products and the consumers would get a more natural product that benefits the trade balance of the country.
Giorgi Kochlamazashvili is a member of the Bodbe Farmers Association. Recently they have constructed a milk collection centre, financed by a Sida project. The centre provides the possibility for farmers to deliver milk all year round.
- Now the centre collects milk only every other day, presently not more than 800 litres on collection days, Levan Benashvili says Chairman of the Farmers association in Bodbe. Most of the cows go dry during winter, due to bad forage and unplanned calving. But the capacity of the milk collection centre is 4 tons a day, a level that will be reached during summer.
The Farmers Association and the milk collection centre opens up new possibilities for the dairy farmers in Bodbe. Not only will there be a possibility to sell milk year round. The centre also checks the quality of the milk and the association organises training in how to improve forage and occasions for artificial insemination, making it possible to plan calving.
Buyers of the milk are both industrialised dairies and the regional larger cheese makers, that encouraged by the project has started an association.
- From whom we buy depend on the price and quality, says Temut Balajishvili, president of the Kiziki cheese makers association. If we buy from the centre it is a little more expensive, but we know the milk has a guaranteed quality. If we buy straight from the farmer, we have no guarantees – I have sometimes paid dearly for bad quality milk that was not fit to use for making cheese. And collecting milk from each farmer is difficult and time consuming, making the whole process unprofitable.
Lars Tallert