In Eastern Africa, the dairy sector is crucial for rural development, poverty reduction and food and nutrition security. Yet, its potential remains underexploited. Despite a strong interest from policymakers and investors and the on-going re-structuring of dairy value chains, a number of production, marketing and trade constraints hinder their development.

East African countries face similar issues, notably low dairy farm productivity and inadequate milk quality. These challenges stem from various constraints, including technological, capacity, organisational and policy ones. Removing some of these bottlenecks may require regional-level interventions, especially to remove barriers to trade products as well as inputs.

This note shows that there are opportunities to strengthen or build upon existing regional structures and market complementarities, so to activate stronger regional levers and coordinate actions across countries around a regional strategy. Various stakeholders have indicated that the related priority areas should be creating a regional regulatory framework and developing capacities.

Photo courtesy: Melanie Bateman

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