THE Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB) has urged stakeholders in the country to grab opportunities and invest in the dairy sub-sector to increase production which is low compared to demand.

TDB Registrar Prof George Msalya made the appeal yesterday when opening a workshop for journalists in Dar es Salaam which was aimed at creating awareness about the dairy industry and the state of milk production in the country which stands at 3.9 billion litres while the demand is 12 billion litres annually.

“There is demand for 9 billion liters of milk which has compelled the government to start importing milk from abroad despite Tanzania being the second African country with the biggest number of livestock.  This is due to the fact that many livestock keepers do not breed modern dairy cows," he said.

Msalya said that last year, the country imported 11 million litres of milk from more than 10 countries in the world where Tanzania spent 23bn/- , adding that time has come to encourage investment in the dairy sector by training farmers to practise modern livestock keeping.

He said that many Tanzanians still do not have a full understanding about drinking milk because some people still believe that milk is for children.

"Journalists, use your pens to educate the society about the importance of drinking milk and the best way to take care of milk before it reaches the consumer,” said Prof Msalya.

He furthers said the country has 252 milk collection centres but only 12 percent of the best milk available in the country enters the official collection system.

He explained that in order to ensure that they achieve their goals, the government through the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) has created a system of providing loans to people and institutions in order to strengthen the dairy industry as well as the milk collection system.

TDB is a government institution under the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries that regulates the dairy industry with the responsibilities of coordinating and ensuring that the sub-sector is productive and contributes to national development.