Travena Dairies to close Windhoek distribution outlets

Top indigenous milk producer Travena Dairies will close its distribution outlets in Windhoek this month, as operations have become unsustainable.

Travena Dairies, primarily operates in the Omaheke region but has four home distribution outlets in Windhoek and three in Omaheke that sell milk to low-income earners.

The operations manager of the family enterprise Frans Murangi says the Windhoek outlets distribute 1 800 litres every two days but will close next week as the company scales down operations.

At least 20 jobs will be at stake.

Murangi says at the centre of Travena’s problems was a double allocation of the eight-hectare at Farm Du Plessis.

“We opened a liquor outlet in 2000 but then land reform minister Utoni Nujoma declined to renew the licence expired in 2016 because it was not agriculture-related. We then set up a dairy venture,” Murangi said.

“However, a neighbouring school claimed we had encroached on their land and the ministry stopped our operations,” he added.

Murangi said only about 3 000 dairy cows remain in the country with 1 500 at Namibia Dairies Superfarm at Mariental, 216 at Travena Dairies and the rest are in small pockets with the remaining farmers.

Because of the insecurity of tenure, Murangi says Travena cannot expand while costs escalate.

“This is making our operations unsustainable,” he said.

“Since Travena was established we had been supplying fresh milk to all government schools in Omaheke region up to 2022 when the government started giving children imported powdered milk,” he asked.

This, he says, cost Travena the market until they opened three outlets in Gobabis and in Windhoek.

He said the eight hectares is too small to graze 216 cows so they buy feed for only 106 cows in milk while the rest are kept at a rented camp – an expense he can ill afford.

He said farmers in Botswana offered to buy his cows but he chose not to sell.

He suggested that government incorporates small dairies like Travena into resuscitating Uvhungu-Vhungu Dairy Project in Kavango East that has been idle for about 16 years.

The governor of Kavango East, Julius Hambyuka says efforts to resume operations are at an advanced stage.

“We cleared the land three months ago and are waiting for the agriculture ministry’s directives,” he said.

He said he had explored the concept of including small-scale farmers like Murangi into the scheme but more consultations into the issue need to be done.

Namibian’s dairy sector is in a critical state, characterised by a sharp decline in production and a significant exodus by farmers.

Local raw milk production plummeted by approximately 35% between 2017 and 2022, while the number of active dairy farmers reportedly dropped from 27 to just four in that same period.

The industry is dominated by Namibia Dairies, which operates the !Aimab Superfarm at Mariental, accounting for roughly 90 – 95% of total local production.

– Email: matthew@namibian.com.na

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