Investor to transform Mantusini Dairy into processing plant
THE investor –Cream Top- roped in by the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform to turn around the dire situation at the sinking Mantusini Dairy farm has hit the ground running.
The Mantusini Dairy Trust Farm situated in Port St Johns was established by more than 450 Mantusini villagers in 2005. However, it failed to take off, mainly due to a lack of funding. The national department of Rural Development and Land Reform saw potential in the project and pumped in millions of rands in investment to give the business that stood to benefit hundreds of villagers a foothold.
Almost two decades later the dairy farm has found itself heading back to its stages of infancy. Only three months ago Mantusini Dairy farm made news headlines where it was reported that it was on a brink of closing shop. This was due to shortage of feed which saw the business losing an average 53 dairy cows each month due to hunger. This affected the business badly as the amount of milk produced by the cows dwindled by hundreds of litres. Due to this challenge the farm that supplied its fresh milk to dairy processors like SUNDALE and Clover couldn’t meet its targets resulting in loss of profit.
Currently the farm produces 300 litres of milk a day from its 78 milking cows with each cow producing only 4 litres due to starvation. The total herd of the farm is 348 cows which consists of 48 calves, 227 pregnant cows and 43 pregnant heifers.
In response to these news, MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Nomakhosazana Meth moved swiftly to rescue the situation.
On Saturday (September 5), after a busy week of handing over livestock to red meat farmers in the Alfred Nzo District as part of DRDARD’s livestock improvement programme, Meth officially introduced Cream Top to the Mantusini Dairy trustees as the rescuer.
“Our government has invested a lot in this project for us to back down now. We will rally behind the Mantusini Dairy and the community until we see it impacting positively on the lives of local people by eradicating poverty through job creation and inspire more businesses like this one. Today we say you aren’t alone,” said Meth.
She emphasized that the department would monitor the business closely so to avoid mismanagement of resources. During the introduction of the investor, Meth also handed over a portion of a 100-ton livestock feed to the farm.
As the first step to rescue the situation, Sihle Ntuli of Cream Top said since last week they stopped milking of the cows with immediate effect and focused on first feeding the cows to avoid further mortalities.
“The dairy farm is sitting on a red light. The first step is to save the cattle and then work on resolving the infrastructural challenges,” he said.
Ntuli said they would plant more feed while constructing a dairy processing plant on the side which would see the farm producing raw products and processing them into finished tertiary products without the use of a middleman.
“We are not a charity. We are here to do business and the processing plant will see us milking cows, processing, packaging and branding it as products ready for the market,” he said.
He said turning things around at the farm would take them a period of three months.
“ Vets have checked the wellbeing of the cows as we speak. At the same time, we will be working on Human Resource issues which include the salaries of workers that weren’t paid for the past three months and we expect them to be disbursed into the accounts of employees ,” he added.
Mantusini employs 18 staffers which include the management.
The two parties –Mantusini Dairy Farm and Cream Top- have entered on a profit share agreement (PFA). Due to this form of contract, Ntuli said the people of Mantusini would continue owning 100% of the business but they would share the profits.
Manager at the farm, Oscar Nzimande said they were looking forward to working with Cream Top.
“What I have realised is that we have a common goal and vision with the investor and because of this I believe the partnership is going to yield positive results for both parties,” he said.
MEC-visit-Mantusini
Investor to transform Mantusini Dairy into processing plant
THE investor –Cream Top- roped in by the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform to turn around the dire situation at the sinking Mantusini Dairy farm has hit the ground running.
The Mantusini Dairy Trust Farm situated in Port St Johns was established by more than 450 Mantusini villagers in 2005. However, it failed to take off, mainly due to a lack of funding. The national department of Rural Development and Land Reform saw potential in the project and pumped in millions of rands in investment to give the business that stood to benefit hundreds of villagers a foothold.
Almost two decades later the dairy farm has found itself heading back to its stages of infancy. Only three months ago Mantusini Dairy farm made news headlines where it was reported that it was on a brink of closing shop. This was due to shortage of feed which saw the business losing an average 53 dairy cows each month due to hunger. This affected the business badly as the amount of milk produced by the cows dwindled by hundreds of litres. Due to this challenge the farm that supplied its fresh milk to dairy processors like SUNDALE and Clover couldn’t meet its targets resulting in loss of profit.
Currently the farm produces 300 litres of milk a day from its 78 milking cows with each cow producing only 4 litres due to starvation. The total herd of the farm is 348 cows which consists of 48 calves, 227 pregnant cows and 43 pregnant heifers.
In response to these news, MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, Nomakhosazana Meth moved swiftly to rescue the situation.
On Saturday (September 5), after a busy week of handing over livestock to red meat farmers in the Alfred Nzo District as part of DRDARD’s livestock improvement programme, Meth officially introduced Cream Top to the Mantusini Dairy trustees as the rescuer.
“Our government has invested a lot in this project for us to back down now. We will rally behind the Mantusini Dairy and the community until we see it impacting positively on the lives of local people by eradicating poverty through job creation and inspire more businesses like this one. Today we say you aren’t alone,” said Meth.
She emphasized that the department would monitor the business closely so to avoid mismanagement of resources. During the introduction of the investor, Meth also handed over a portion of a 100-ton livestock feed to the farm.
As the first step to rescue the situation, Sihle Ntuli of Cream Top said since last week they stopped milking of the cows with immediate effect and focused on first feeding the cows to avoid further mortalities.
“The dairy farm is sitting on a red light. The first step is to save the cattle and then work on resolving the infrastructural challenges,” he said.
Ntuli said they would plant more feed while constructing a dairy processing plant on the side which would see the farm producing raw products and processing them into finished tertiary products without the use of a middleman.
“We are not a charity. We are here to do business and the processing plant will see us milking cows, processing, packaging and branding it as products ready for the market,” he said.
He said turning things around at the farm would take them a period of three months.
“ Vets have checked the wellbeing of the cows as we speak. At the same time, we will be working on Human Resource issues which include the salaries of workers that weren’t paid for the past three months and we expect them to be disbursed into the accounts of employees ,” he added.
Mantusini employs 18 staffers which include the management.
The two parties –Mantusini Dairy Farm and Cream Top- have entered on a profit share agreement (PFA). Due to this form of contract, Ntuli said the people of Mantusini would continue owning 100% of the business but they would share the profits.
Manager at the farm, Oscar Nzimande said they were looking forward to working with Cream Top.
“What I have realised is that we have a common goal and vision with the investor and because of this I believe the partnership is going to yield positive results for both parties,” he said.