Milk Collecting Communities “MCCs”
Kevin Fitzcharles
CARE International - Egypt"For several years, CARE and Danone have been sharing ideas on the theme of corporate responsibility. At CARE, we believe that working alongside the private sector is an integral part of our mission, and that we can develop new models which are not only economically viable, but additionally profitable for the most fragile communities."
-
Small-holding milk producers in Egypt suffer from decreasing milk prices and the monopolization of the dairy trade by local traders. An analysis of the dairy value chain shows reduced milk productivity and quality, price fixing by wholesale traders, and an unfair distribution of profits gained across the various segments in the dairy value chain.
-
To address these problems, DANONE and CARE international in Egypt – with the participation of various stakeholders – decided to collaborate and work with two types of Egyptian agricultural cooperatives to learn more about the necessary interventions to improve the situation for small-holding milk producers.
-
The project aims at supporting smallholders through two main levers: training them to improve milk productivity and quality, and helping them to sell their milk at a fair price.
-
The cornerstone of the project is the Milk Collection Center, also called “MCC”. The smallholders living close to the MCC bring themselves the milk twice a day. For those who live further away, collectors fetch the milk at their doorway and deliver it to the MCC. The Milk Collection centers then checks the milk quality and through the MCC, farmers also have access to services such as feed programs, milk quality and health management trainings. Women are specifically targeted in these trainings as they play a key role in animal care.
- The project is on tracks and is currently deployed in various sites in Egypt.