World Milk Day Celebration in Ethiopia

The World Milk Day celebration in Ethiopia has been started since 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture, officially endorsed it and lead the celebration annually since then. Ethiopia holds the largest cattle population in Africa, with over 60 million cattle herds, and over 14 million milking cows. Milk and traditional dairy foods are important component of the diets of millions. Since modern dairying was introduced to Ethiopia, processed milk products are being produced and consumed, with increasing trends of imports). Currently over 34 registered dairy plants operate mainly in the capita, Addis Ababa. Currently, the Government of Ethiopia has a clear policy to accelerate the transformation of agricultural sector in general, and livestock sub-sector in particular, with due emphasis on dairying among the top priorities. Such platforms like the World Milk Day, is used as a platform to bring all stakeholders together, to discuss on the past, current and future challenges, opportunities and prospects of dairying in Ethiopia. Like in the past two years, the Ministry organized a one day workshop in Hawassa, to bring together all concerned bodies working on the dairy industry, research organizations, Universities, government official/experts from various sector and also representatives of dairy producers. The event is composed of panel discussions by high level professionals, presentations on the Ethiopian and global dairy industry, and some motivation speeches and entertainments. On the event, selected dairy companies also promote and provide their products to the participants. The event will be covered by regional and national radio and TV programs, to make the World Milk Day visible among all Ethiopians and to promote milk production and consumption in the country.