A dairy supply chain for nutritious yoghurt
Ethiopia has 12 million dairy cows, but due to a lack of infrastructure, much of their milk never reaches consumers. The GAIN Access to Better Dairy project was launched to build a sustainable dairy supply chain in collaboration with smallholder farmers and local dairies.
As lead business partner, our role at Arla Foods Ingredients was to equip the dairies with the capabilities to produce a safe, nutritious and affordable yoghurt for sale in Ethiopian markets and kiosks. The yoghurt recipe contains our whey permeate – an ingredient rich in milk minerals and lactose – to maximise the dairies’ yoghurt production and ensure a good taste and texture.
Our partners in the project – GAIN and DanChurchAid – established other key links in the supply chain. This involved working with farmers to improve their milk quality and yield and raising public awareness of the importance of good nutrition, especially for children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers. The Confederation of Danish Industry contributed to the business model.
GAIN Access to Better Dairy received support from Denmark’s development cooperation agency, Danida.
The model developed through this project is fully documented and suitable for transfer to other markets.
This project ran from 2017 to 2024
UN sustainable development goals
This project specifies a contribution to SDG 2.1/2.3, 8.2/8.4 and 12.3.
From papaya waste to dried fruit snack
Vitamin-rich papayas are a source of income for more than 890,000 smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, but 30% of their harvest is lost due to spoilage. If just some of this nutritious fruit could be saved and brought to market as an affordable dried papaya snack, the benefits would be great – for the farmers, for job creation in the food industry and for low-income households where malnutrition is common.
Led by GAIN, a public-private partnership came together to solve this problem by building a supply chain to transform papaya waste into a commercial dried fruit protein bar. As product innovation partner, our role at Arla Foods Ingredient was to develop the recipes and transfer the necessary processing knowhow to local manufacturers.
Other partners included Addis Ababa University, three Ethiopian food producers and a local agricultural engineering enterprise. The Confederation of Danish Industry developed a viable business model.
The Danida Market Development Partnerships programme provided funding for the project.
This project ran from 2020 to 2025
The protein-enriched biscuit collaboration
Cross-sector expertise is a huge benefit in any complex project. When Arla Foods Ingredients, DanChurchAid and Novozymes joined a series of other companies in the Sustainable Food Partnership, the goal was clear: to share knowledge and expertise that could enable the development and launch of new products for affordable nutrition.
The first project focused on developing a protein-enriched biscuit in Ethiopia. Produced by a manufacturer in Addis Ababa, the biscuit contained protein from locally grown chickpeas and quinoa, with whey protein as a source of dairy nutrients.
Funding for the project was provided by P4G, the global forum that supports public-private partnerships focused on accelerating sustainable development. P4G also funded the partnership’s Sustainable Food Platform initiative to promote local production of nutritious food for people living in or around refugee camps.
This project ran from 2019 to 2022.
