Trade and Development of Dairy Production in West Africa: a Review

In the last 30 years, the development of urban dairy industries has deeply changed the organization of dairy marketing in West Africa. To respond to the high increase of the urban demand, the dairy plants contributed to a fast increase in cheap dry milk imports. However, the domestic dairy production sector has been going through major changes in the past fifteen years. These changes question the industrial model, which is disconnected from the local production. Dairy production changes in West Africa are related to the development, in the late 1990s, of small-scale dairy processing units engaged in the collection of local milk. To respond to this new market outlet, smallholders (pastoral herders, agropastoral farmers) tend to convert to semi-intensive systems, based on feed supplementation of dairy cows. At the same time, a growing number of urban cowsheds and milk farms have developed near urban centers, often with more intensified production systems. To face the competition of imported dry milk, the new actors of the dairy subsector focus on specific market segments that promote the local origin of their products. These new collecting and processing chains are progressively leading to changes in dairy development policies. New trade regulations are emerging between State institutions and private actors. These regulations relate to questioning trade liberalization, to promoting low-input milk production systems, and to setting up participative quality management systems in the dairy marketing chains.