The Nigerian dairy market is dominated by fat-filled milk powder (FFMP), which is produced by mixing skimmed milk powder with vegetable fats after eradicating some or the entire authentic milk fats.
In supermarkets, the merchandise are neatly organized on cabinets. They’re additionally offered in giant, open market areas all through the nation. Within the metropolis suburbs, they’re offered in makeshift grocery retailers by the roadside and hawked by road distributors at daybreak as condiments for tea, making them a staple for a lot of houses.
What’s unknown to the huge part of Nigerian customers is that in Europe, the place most of those merchandise are manufactured, they aren’t classified as milk. Similar in Nigeria the place the regulator stated FFMP merchandise “aren’t categorised as milk in the identical means as entire milk powder or skimmed milk powder.”
An investigation by PREMIUM TIMES confirmed that for years, West Africa has been a industrial hub for reasonable milk substitutes from the EU. We discovered steady export of FFMP from Eire into the area, with Nigeria as one in all its largest markets.
This investigation has additionally proven that the fat-filled powder is marketed and offered as milk to Nigerians who’re unaware of the distinction between actual milk and this different.
PREMIUM TIMES additionally discovered widespread misinformation about FFMP amongst merchants of dairy merchandise in main markets throughout the nation, significantly in Abuja, Enugu, Kano and Lagos states the place we surveyed.
One such Nigerian is Chisom Odirichukwu, 35, who’s shocked to be taught and unwilling to simply accept that the sachets of milk powder in his retailer at Wuse Market, Abuja, aren’t milk.
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Primarily based on his years of proudly owning a store primarily for dairy merchandise, he’s sure that the distinction between FFMP and other forms of powder, equivalent to entire milk, hinges on style, not high quality.
A few of his clients favor entire cream milk, whereas some would all the time request fat-filled milk merchandise, he stated, pointing on the packs of Milksi and Kerrygold lined on one a part of the shelf within the retailer.
Misinformation on fat-filled powder
Milksi and Kerrygold Avantage are among the many commonest FFMP merchandise offered in supermarkets, malls, and open markets in Nigeria.
At Wuse Market, one in all Abuja’s largest markets, they’re stacked on the cabinets in lots of grocery shops and are regarded by merchants as among the many most accepted merchandise. They’re fast to depart the cabinets as a result of they’re in excessive demand and are consumed by folks of all ages group, excluding infants.
Different broadly consumed FFMPs are Dano, Cowbell, and Three Crown. However they aren’t Irish merchandise.
PREMIUM TIMES noticed that FFMP offered in Nigeria is labelled as “Prompt-filled milk powder,” WMP is labelled as “full cream powder,” and Skimmed Milk Powder is labelled as “skimmed milk powder.”
Mr Odirichukwu stated that individuals who say FFMP shouldn’t be actual milk know nothing about dairy merchandise.
“It’s best for folks making an attempt to cease weight achieve,” he stated as he reached for a rag to mud out dust on a number of the milk packs.
“It simply is dependent upon desire,” he insisted.
Interviews with many merchants, wholesalers and retailers throughout the nation revealed that FFMP is taken into account to be good for weight reduction and a wholesome life-style. With a prevalence of 27.6 per cent amongst girls and 14.5 per cent amongst males, weight problems is a priority for a significant variety of Nigeria’s inhabitants. Dairy merchants who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES stated that is partly why FFMP is all the time in excessive demand other than its value.
A number of the merchants consider that FFMP, not like Complete Milk Powder (WMP), has zero fats content material. Some others stated FFMP was initially meant for youngsters however turned accepted and consumed by adults as the price of dairy merchandise skyrocketed because of the nation’s inflation.
However the fats content material declare shouldn’t be true.
The Codex Commonplace for Milk Powder and Cream Powder, states that entire milk incorporates a minimal of 26 per cent of milk fats. Equally, FFMP in Nigeria incorporates at the least 28 per cent of vegetable fats sourced from palm oil or coconut oil.
Why FFMP shouldn’t be milk
The EU Frequent Market Organizations‘ (CMO) regulation defines milk because the white liquid produced by mammals, sometimes cows, and picked up through the milking course of. It dictates that milk must be pure, with nothing added or extracted.
In Eire and different EU international locations, the place the dairy sector is developed and manufacturing corresponds adequately with demand, recent milk is consumed.
Nevertheless, nearly all of Nigerian customers have by no means had a glass of recent milk. A lot of the milk consumed by Nigerians is imported.
Often, recent milk is pasteurised and spray-dried into powder earlier than export to permit for an extended shelf life. Therefore, what is on the market is powdered or liquid milk reconstituted from imported powdered milk.
The EU regulation recognises sure sorts of powdered milk, together with the WMP, as a result of they include all the unique vitamins in recent milk. Skimmed milk, which incorporates all of the vitamins however with lowered milk fats, can also be included.
Nevertheless, FFMP, the product that dominates the Nigerian market area, shouldn’t be classified as milk because it violates the CMO regulation, which prohibits the extraction of uncooked milk vitamins. In FFMP, the milk fats, an important content material of milk, has been utterly extracted and changed with vegetable oil.
The EU Fee Press Officer for Agriculture spokesperson providers, Thérèse Lerebours, instructed PREMIUM TIMES that FFMP is known as fat-filled powder within the EU, excluding the ‘M’, as a result of it lacks the important milk compositions and as such can’t be described as one.
“We consult with them as FFP (Fats Stuffed Powders), with out together with the ‘M’ within the center (or the phrase ‘milk’),” Lerebours stated.
Not like in Nigeria, FFMP in Eire is offered solely to enterprise homeowners to supply meals gadgets equivalent to yoghurt and ice cream.
For this investigation, we examined the dietary info on FFMP as listed on their packs, in contrast them to entire milk, and located that FFMP contained much less protein. As an example, the label on a 320g Milksi states that the powder incorporates 10 grammes of protein per 100 grammes of powder. Then again, a Peak milk pack of the same amount, which is WMP, was labelled to include 28g of protein per 100g of powder.
Milksi label exhibiting its dietary worth.
To make cheaper merchandise, costly substances like protein and fats are changed with cheaper ones within the meals business, stated Abimbola Olaniyan, a meals scientist and lecturer at Landmark College, Kwara in Nigeria.
She instructed us that even inside the nation, meals producers typically change costly substances with cheaper ones like sugar.
Nigeria’s dependence on import
The native dairy business is very underdeveloped and underfunded, a pointy distinction to what happens within the EU, the place dairy farmers and firms are supported and subsidised by means of the Frequent Agricultural Coverage (CAP).
Even native dairy corporations depend on imported powdered milk. They both import and repackage powdered milk or reconstitute imported powdered milk into liquid milk.
A lot of the dairy multinational corporations with an enormous presence in Nigeria are from Europe. Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Eire are a number of the prime exporters to Nigeria.
CAP was developed in Brussels. In its early years, the purpose was to make sure meals safety and a steady agricultural market; then, it advanced to assist European agriculture compete globally.
There are long-standing accusations that poor international locations are paying the value for the coverage. However the spokesperson for the EU Fee for Commerce and Agriculture, Gill Olof, stated that FFMP exported to West Africa shouldn’t be topic to tariff discount.
He stated latest exports from the EU to West Africa have been dominated by fat-filled powder as a result of it’s steady in heat climates and extra inexpensive than entire milk powder.
In keeping with analysis by a confederation of 21 non-profits within the EU, the help supplied by means of the CAP permits producers to export their surplus exterior the EU at costs under the price of manufacturing, making it troublesome for native producers in growing international locations like Nigeria to compete.
This, mixed with low milk yield from the indigenous cows, poor funding, and plenty of different challenges, continues to restrict native manufacturing.
Nigeria depends closely on milk imports, which value $1.5 billion every year, to fulfill its 1.45 billion litres of home demand.
Native farmers produce round 530,000 tonnes of uncooked milk, a far cry from Eire’s manufacturing of about eight to 9 million tonnes. The nation is a vital contributor to EU milk manufacturing, producing 94 instances extra milk than Nigeria.
Native manufacturing has remained low in Nigeria regardless of a number of authorities initiatives within the dairy sector.
“The most important situation is the neglect of the sector. Now we have sufficient cows to fulfill the milk demand however the authorities is unwilling to maximise the sources,” Muhammadu Abubakar, the president of the Business Dairy Ranchers Affiliation of Nigeria (CODARAN), stated.
Nigeria has the fifth largest cattle inhabitants in Africa, following Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, and Tanzania. However Lai Solarin, the director of Animal Husbandry on the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, stated the indigenous cattle breeds can not produce sufficient milk to fulfill demand.
She stated out of 10 breeds, solely two are for milk manufacturing. These two are referred to as Sokoto Gudali and White Fulani.
Below the perfect circumstances, she stated, they will solely produce five litres of milk per day. “That is very low when in comparison with breeds in different international locations that may produce 40 to 50 litres.”
FFMP importation
For this investigation, PREMIUM TIMES examined export knowledge from Eire to Nigeria obtained from the Central Statistics Workplace (CSO) of Eire.
We discovered that Nigeria has been an enormous marketplace for FFMP from the EU nation. Total, FFMP, valued at lots of of billions of Naira, was exported to Nigeria from Eire inside 4 years.
Official knowledge confirmed that Eire exported fat-filled powder valued at N686 billion to Nigeria between 2020 and 2023. The export to Nigeria within the first quarter of 2024 alone was value N25 billion.
This raised the sum of powder exported to Nigeria to N712 billion. We discovered that export worth rose from N115 billion in 2020 to greater than N200 billion in 2021 and 2022. It, nonetheless, fell to N81 billion in 2023.
The CODORAN government director, Dianabasi Akpainyang, instructed PREMIUM TIMES that the autumn in 2023 is partly because of the elevated inflation and financial disaster that hit the nation following the introduction of the dual insurance policies — gas subsidy removing and the unification of the trade charges.
Our investigation additionally revealed that Irish dairy producers have a powerful market presence not solely in Nigeria however throughout the West African area.
We discovered that Irish dairy producers exported FFMP to 16 West African international locations. Massive portions have been exported to Senegal, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, and plenty of others.
Export to the area greater than doubled inside the final three years, rising from N447 billion in 2020 to N977 billion in 2023. Between 2020 and the first quarter of 2024, the Irish complete FFMP export into the area is value N2 trillion.
There isn’t any knowledge on the consumption of fat-filled powder in West Africa.
The Landmark College lecturer, Mrs Olaniyan, linked the big export to Nigeria to the big inhabitants and the excessive demand for reasonable merchandise.
She additionally attributed it to the nation’s dairy product regulation, which allows the importation and free sale of FFMP to any prepared purchaser.
A survey of FFMP market costs
According to Euromonitor, a worldwide enterprise intelligence supplier, Kerrygold is among the many prime five manufacturers main milk powder gross sales in Nigeria.
A analysis advisor with Euromonitor, Anje Du Plessis, stated Kerrygold follows FrieslandCampina, which is the main model, adopted by Promasidor Nigeria and Nestle Nigeria.
Kerrygold Avantage is produced by Ornua Restricted, a multinational dairy firm in Eire. Milksi was initially produced by an Irish meals scientist, Mark Cribbin. Nevertheless, each merchandise are packaged and distributed by Nigerian subsidiary corporations.
PREMIUM TIMES reviewed the market value of Kerrygold and Milksi fat-filled powder in comparison with the common value of entire milk in Nigeria.
For this evaluate, we visited supermarkets and main market areas in Abuja, Enugu, Kano and Lagos.
We discovered that FFMP is offered at less expensive costs.
A 32kg pouch of entire milk powder is offered at costs starting from N200 to N250, whereas Milksi is offered at N80 to N100. A 320-350g pouch of WMP is N1000-N2000 greater than the price of fat-filled powder.
At a shopping center in Abuja, an 800g pouch of entire milk is offered for N8,500 whereas Kerrygold Avantage powder of the same amount prices N6300. Additionally, a 900g pouch of WMP prices at the least N11,000 whereas FFMP is about N8000 – N9000
Another manufacturers of FFMP are offered at a cheaper price.
In Nigeria, Kerrygold is packaged by Eagles Industries Worldwide Idea, a packaging plant for Kerrygold established by Fareast Mercantile Co. Restricted in partnership with Ornua, our investigation confirmed.
Fareast Mercantile Co. Restricted additionally serves because the merchandise distributor in Nigeria.
Milksi is packaged by Promasidor Nigeria, a subsidiary of South Africa-based Promasidor Holdings.
Throughout this investigation, PREMIUM TIMES wrote to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), requesting knowledge on the amount of FFMP shipped immediately to those corporations. Nevertheless, the company has but to reply to this request.
PREMIUM TIMES additionally contacted Promasidor Nigeria Restricted and Fareast Mercantile Co. Restricted, the businesses accountable for the sale of Kerrygold Avantage and Milksi in Nigeria.
Our reporter referred to as the contacts listed on their web sites and emailed each corporations. Nevertheless, as of the time of this report, neither firm had responded.
We additionally wrote to Ornua concerning the advertising and marketing of FFMP merchandise in Nigeria.
We sought clarification on why Ornua continues to make use of the time period “fat-filled milk powder” in its branding regardless of the European Fee’s ban on the time period “Milk” for FFMP merchandise.
Nevertheless, Ornua’s response stated it might not present any feedback or solutions to the inquiries.
NAFDAC regulation
Nigeria’s meals regulator, the Nationwide Company for Meals and Drug Administration and Management (NAFDAC), stated its regulation prohibits the commercial of FFMP as a product in the identical class as WMP and skimmed milk.
The NAFDAC DG, Moji Adeyeye, instructed PREMIUM TIMES that FFMP shouldn’t be thought of milk however as milk options or milk merchandise.
“FFMP merchandise aren’t categorised as milk in the identical means as entire milk powder or skimmed milk powder,” she stated.
Nevertheless, our investigation discovered no FFMP pouch or tin labelled as milk options or milk merchandise. They have been labelled milk.
With the poor implementation of laws, widespread consumption would persist and on the detriment of native dairy farmers who search to supply recent milk at giant however lack funding and support for this.
Farmers who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES stated the imports of cheaper milk powder into the area would proceed to hamper native manufacturing.
In keeping with Daniyan Abimbola, the CEO of Abimbola Dairy Farms Built-in, the price of dairy farming in Nigeria doesn’t correspond to profit, which continues to discourage folks from doing it.
“Native producers can not compete with multinational corporations within the dairy business and the profit margin is vast. That is why some dairy farms are compelled to close down lower than five years after they’re established,” stated Mr Abimbola.
However he retains religion, he stated. He hopes that the Nationwide Dairy Coverage adopted in 2014 will change the business beneath the brand new Ministry of Livestock Improvement to be established by the Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu.
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