Haa Valley Cooperative, a dairy processing group has been doing good business despite the COVID-19 situation. And marketing has not been a challenge for the group. They sell their products in Thimphu and Phuentshogling. The 19-member group is also planning to start up their own dairy farm.
From around 7 am, the milk collector bolero makes its round from Uesu Gewog in the south to Kartsho Gewog in the north. The cooperative has 250 members. During the peak summer, the group collects around 1,500 litres of milk.
“At the end of the month, we get the money in a lump sum. That is convenient for us to buy feeds and other groceries items. Moreover, it is better to sell milk because we need not churn cream to make butter and cheese,” said Karma Wangmo, a villager.
“The profit margin is the same for milk, butter or cheese. But selling milk is easier and convenient,” said Tshering Dem, another villager.
Once the milk collector arrives at the processing unit, the milk is first steamed. And then it undergoes process such as cream separation and then makes butter and cheese. 22 litres of milk can produce a kilogram of butter and ten balls of cheese. And a kilogram of butter fetches Nu 500.
Selling these products has never been a problem for the cooperative.
“Once we get the experience and maintain the quality, there is no marketing issue. We sent a package to Phuentshogling once a week and Thimphu is our main market. We send our product to Thimphu on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday,” said Tshewang Norbu, the Head of the Cooperative.
The group earns over Nu 200,500 in a month. With the business going well, the group is planning to start a farm with some 100 jersey cows.
“We are planning to start up our own farm. We will be able to produce milk on our own and process it into other products. And we are looking at 25 youth taking care of the farm. And we availed Nu 1.4 M loan from CSI bank,” added Tshewang Norbu, the Head of the Cooperative.
The cooperative also produces Italian cheese, cottage cheese and yoghurt.
NamgayWangchuk, Haa
