HARARE, Zimbabwe – Once a familiar sight on supermarket shelves, Dairibord’s cheese has quietly vanished from the Zimbabwean market — and its disappearance tells a broader story about the country’s struggling manufacturing sector, according to NewZwire.
Despite being the country’s largest dairy processor and having purchased 42.2 million litres of milk in 2024 — a 49% increase from the previous year — Dairibord is no longer producing cheese. The reason? Rising production costs, outdated equipment, policy shifts, and stiff regional competition have rendered cheese-making economically unviable.
“Do we have the luxury to buy milk and park it for six weeks while it matures into cheese, when we’re paying farmers every two weeks and retailers take 20 days to pay?” asked Dairibord CEO Mercy Ndoro. Speaking on the sidelines of the company’s financial results presentation, Ndoro explained the cash flow pressures and long working capital cycles that make cheese production unsustainable under current conditions.
Zimbabwe’s total milk production stood at 114.7 million litres in 2024, still short of the estimated 140 million litres needed annually. Most of this milk is prioritised for fresh dairy products, leaving little surplus for value-added goods like cheese and powdered milk.
Making matters worse, Zimbabwean dairy farmers charge an average of 63 US cents per litre, significantly higher than regional competitors such as South Africa (40 cents), Zambia (50 cents), and Malawi (26 cents).
“Cheese is coming in from South Africa,” said Ndoro. “If we were to produce it again locally, it would be an expensive cheese that most Zimbabweans cannot afford.”
Adding to the challenge, much of Dairibord’s old cheese-making equipment is now obsolete and would require significant capital investment to replace.
While Zimbabwe still boasts local cheese producers like Kefalos, Cheeseman, Vumba, and Matopos, Dairibord’s withdrawal from the segment reflects the broader structural constraints facing the manufacturing sector — including high utility bills, unpredictable regulatory changes, and heavy taxation.
In its 2024 financial report, Dairibord revealed that while it had grown its milk intake and increased profitability — posting a $3.78 million profit, up from $1 million in 2023 — its beverage volumes grew by just 1%, largely due to the impact of the sugar tax and a costly VAT reclassification. The VAT shift alone cost the company $630,000, while the sugar tax added a further $2.26 million to its expenses.
To mitigate some of these domestic pressures, Dairibord continues to produce certain products through toll manufacturing contracts in South Africa, a move that underscores how local conditions have made cross-border production more viable than home-based manufacturing.
The case of Dairibord’s missing cheese may seem minor on the surface, but it reflects a deeper and more concerning reality — Zimbabwean manufacturers are fighting for survival in an economy where policy inconsistency, high costs, and outdated infrastructure are driving companies to scale down or outsource.
