Twenty-One Colombian Dairy Farmers Join to Improve Milk Prices
The Asociación Agropecuaria de la Vereda Usatama de Fusagasugá, known as ASAU, was established three years ago and now has 21 members, including four women. About 80% of its members operate mixed dairy-and-beef farms. By combining milk from separate holdings, the association aims to offer buyers a larger volume without requiring each farm to expand independently.
The group’s immediate project is a collection centre in Fusagasugá, in the department of Cundinamarca. The centre has been equipped with a refrigerated tank holding up to 2,500 litres. The equipment was obtained after discussions with Fusagasugá’s Agriculture Secretariat and has already been moved to the site. The facility still requires work on electricity, hygiene and quality-control arrangements.
ASAU members estimate that completing the installations required by Colombia’s National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute, Invima, will take about a month. The improvements are expected to cost close to 20m Colombian pesos. Producers are raising part of that sum themselves through community activities, including raffles and parties.
The association expects to start with between 700 and 900 litres a day, below the tank’s full capacity. It has identified roughly 50 farmers in eight to ten surrounding villages who may be potential members. ASAU says the prospect of offering a better milk price will be one of the main ways it seeks to attract them.
Price differences are a central concern for the producers. Farmers nearer the municipal centre currently receive between 1,700 and 1,800 pesos per litre from informal collectors, locally called “jarreadores”. In more remote areas, the payment can fall to between 1,500 and 1,600 pesos. The same collectors later sell the milk in Fusagasugá’s urban centre for between 2,500 and 3,000 pesos per litre.
Alexander Maldonado, ASAU’s legal representative, said the association was created to strengthen the farmers’ negotiating position. “The only way to compete, especially now in the free-trade market, is by associating,” he said. The cooling facility is intended to let members store and consolidate milk under controlled conditions while they seek buyers for the combined supply, rather than relying on purchasers who collect from each individual farm.
ASAU’s plans extend beyond selling unprocessed milk. The association intends to add equipment for making dairy products and to market them under its own brand. The project also includes measures at farm level, such as silvopastoral systems, forage hedges and maize silage, as well as reproductive technologies including artificial insemination and embryo transfer. The proposed processing stage would require additional investment, regulatory approvals, commercial development and industrial capacity.
