Our host for this trip is Nonny Penelope Wright, a young female dairy entrepreneur from Maun, Botswana. She is the founder and owner of Sereledi Farms.
Maun is a large village on the northern side of Botswana that hosts over 75,000 people. The hot semi-arid climate is a large tourist destination for wildlife safaris in the Okavango Delta, and the abundance of charter flights gives it the second busiest airport in Southern Africa.
With a family background in beef farming, Nonny ventured into dairy production about five years ago to capture an enormous opportunity. Botswana has a national deficit of over 65 million litres of milk that are all imported from South Africa. In Maun alone, over three million litres of fresh milk are consumed annually. Nonny’s operations is one of only two dairy enterprises in Maun which provides her with significant opportunity to capture increasing preference for local products compared to the plethora of South African products. In addition, dairy seemed like a natural evolution from beef farming which she realized was realizing less profits due to limitations from foot and mouth disease present in some areas of Ngamiland, where Maun is located.
On her 125 hectare farm, Nonny started with 10 cows in 2014 and grew to over 60 cows in the beginning of 2019. She has a herd of mostly Jersey cows, although she has acquired some Holstein-Friesians and Ayshires to test their adaptability to the Botswana climate. The cows rely on pasture for about nine months out of the year. For the rest of the year, during seasons of low rain, she sources feed from local feed supply stores and relies on silage (fermented maize) from her fields. The cows are mostly supplied with water from boreholes on the farm, although the current drought season has critically impacted water access. Nonny has been shipping water to the farm to keep her cows hydrated.
Maun has experienced increasing drought for the past few years, and this past season has been particularly rough. The major river which typically flows from Angola and through Namibia has completely dried up in this area of Botswana. The nearby boreholes that are shallowly dug because of the sandy soils have also mostly dried up, leaving saline water. This has also limited feed available, creating significant difficulties for herd health, management, and milk production.
Jersey cows are known for producing milk with high fat content. Nonny uses this milk to produce fresh milk, drinking yogurt and a sour milk product called madila. Madila is common with some meals in Botswana and is often consumed at events such as weddings and funerals. The fresh milk often goes towards government institutions, and the drinking yogurt is sold in local retail stores.
What’s exciting about Nonny and Sereledi Farms is the community following behind the Sereledi brand. Nonny comes from a well-known family in the area and community members are excited to see a product coming from Maun. The product is rich and thick with flavor which helps it to set itself apart from less viscous products. People come from far and wide to the retail stores where she stocks only for her product, and some even come directly to the processing plant to purchase larger quantities.
Her brand has received a lot of attention around the country, and she has received a number of interesting offers to expand in different ways, largely on the processing side. However, this will require addressing more upstream supply side issues. Our SMART team is working to help Nonny figure out the best strategy going forward!
SMART 2020: Botswana 