The day the chiller worked againin Debre Berhan, Ethiopia

Berehane Eshete is 36, a mother of three, and the manager of the Andenet (Cheki Andinet) Dairy Cooperative Association in North Shewa. On a sunny afternoon in Debre Berhan, a highland town in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region, about 130 km (81 miles) northeast of Addis Ababa, she opens the chiller door (equipment used to cool fresh milk rapidly) and checks inside with the calm focus of someone who knows how quickly milk can spoil if the process slips. The unit hums softly in the background, doing the quiet work that keeps milk cool, safe, and fit for sale. This simple daily action protects milk quality, reduces losses, and maintains trust throughout the dairy value chain.

Berehane speaks with the calm confidence of someone who has watched an idea grow into a real institution. The cooperative began in 2004 E.C., founded by 17 people who believed that working together could change their livelihoods. “When the founders started,” she says, “they began with only 50 cents per person.” At the time, the cooperative also sought support from partners, including World Vision, which helped the group establish the dairy site.

Over time, the cooperative evolved. What began as a standalone cooperative later expanded through a merger, bringing other cooperatives under one umbrella, including Cheki Milk Cooperative and Bura Geberetsion Milk Cooperative. The numbers clearly show this growth: “Before the merger we had 447 members,” Berehane explains. “After one year, we became 565 members.”

The cooperative collects milk from its members and sells it to customers through formal contracts. For Berehane, the strategy is simple and practical: deliver fair service, build trust, and more people will join. “We collect milk from members,” she explains, “and by giving good service, we encourage more people to become members.”

To join, a farmer must own cows and be able to supply milk. Members buy shares and register officially. “The smallest share used to be 20 shares,” she says, “but we amended it to 25 shares as the minimum.” The cooperative also charges a registration payment, which increased as the cooperative grew.

The cooperative’s operations now run at a much larger scale than before. Berehane remembers the early days: “Before, we collected around 37 litres per day.” Today, at peak times, the cooperative reaches as high as 3,325 litres in a day across its collection points. The cooperative is also ambitious: “We plan to expand to the whole district in Debre Berhan,” she says. “We want to collect up to 10,000 litres per day.”

On the capital side, Berehane cites the cooperative’s recorded capital at ETB 4,787,152 (pre-audit). The cooperative also provides jobs: it currently has 20 permanent workers supporting its daily operations. Ethiopia’s National Dairy Development Strategy (NDDS) 2022–2031 estimates annual milk production from cows and camels at about 7.1 billion litres, roughly 60 litres per person per year, well below the WHO reference level of 200 litres, and sets a goal to reach 28.4 billion litres by 2031. It also flags constraints such as feed and animal health gaps, weak infrastructure, and quality and value-addition challenges, which is why routines like testing milk on arrival and chilling it quickly matter for reducing losses and keeping market linkages reliable.

Berehane identifies Garden Dairy as one of the cooperative’s major customers, alongside other local buyers who purchase milk in bulk.  “Garden Dairy has been working with us since the time we started receiving 50 litres per day,” she says. 

The partnership has lasted for years, and Garden Dairy continues to secure the supply contract through the cooperative’s bidding process, where buyers submit offers and the cooperative awards the contract based on agreed terms such as price, reliability, and quality requirements. 

But it’s not only about buying milk. Berehane links the partnership to practical improvements that protect farmers and strengthen quality. “Garden Dairy supports us in many ways,” she explains, “especially on technical issues and milk quality.”

Garden Dairy, a women-owned and managed dairy enterprise, buys milk through cooperative systems and converts it into dairy products such as yoghurt, cheese, and butter. The enterprise builds its business by strengthening quality and stabilizing market access for farmers, especially when demand drops during fasting periods. 

For the cooperative, quality became a defining principle, even when it cost them volume. “Our best practice is quality,” Berehane says. “Yes, quality may affect quantity, but it’s always better to have quality than quantity at all costs.” The cooperative enforces standards through its bylaws. If someone adds water or tampers with milk quality, the cooperative issues warnings, then penalties, including a fine of ETB 2,000, and can ultimately remove the person from membership if the behavior continues.

“It was unused for years”: reviving the chiller and reducing milk losses

One of the most visible changes came through something as simple, and as powerful, as fixing a machine.

“We had a chiller that stopped working for almost seven years,” Berehane recalls. “It had lots of cobwebs and had been unused for years. We had no clue how it functioned. No one had the technical knowledge to use it.” Without it, the cooperative could only collect milk once a day, mainly in the morning.

Berehane explains that Garden Dairy invested practical, hands-on support to get the cooperative’s quality system working. The chiller tank and generator had been provided earlier through USAID’s AGP-LMD support, but the equipment stayed unused for years because staff lacked training and the system was not operational. Garden Dairy helped make the milk analyser operational and restored the chiller to service, then trained cooperative staff on how to run it correctly and safely.

“They supported us beyond trainings,” she says. “They supported us technically. They fixed the chiller and trained us on how it works.”

The effect was immediate and measurable. “Before the chiller, we used to collect only in the morning,” she says, “and it was less than 600 litres per day.” After the chiller returned to operation, the cooperative began collecting milk both in the morning and afternoon, and daily collection rose to around 1,500 litres per day, while improved cooling helped protect quality and reduce losses. 

That change also reduced milk waste, especially during fasting seasons when farmers often struggle to sell their milk. “Before, when people came to us, we used to return the milk,” Berehane admits. “If someone brought 10 litres, we might take only 5 and return the rest.” At times, the cooperative returned 150 to 200 litres because they feared they would not find a buyer.

With stronger quality control and more reliable storage, that pattern began to shift.

Training farmers on milk handling, and celebrating World Milk Day for the first time

The partnership also strengthened farmers’ awareness of milk quality. Berehane points to training that helped members understand milk quality standards, including the risks of diluting milk with water and basic handling principles that protect safety and quality.

“For farmers, we gave two rounds of training sessions,” she explains. The training focused on maintaining quality at the household level and ensuring farmers understand what affects quality and testing outcomes.

The cooperative also marked a moment of pride and recognition: “As a district, we have never celebrated World Milk Day before,” Berehane says. “This was the first time we celebrated it.” They celebrated it at the cooperative site, together with Garden Dairy. 

Berehane’s story sits within a wider value chain effort.

Through Oxfam’s Enterprise Development Program (EDP), Garden Dairy is rolling out a dairy value chain growth plan that supports around 540 farmers (about 70% women) linked to cooperative supply systems, while strengthening processing capacity, quality control, and market linkages. Garden Dairy also directly sustains 33 staff (31 full-time and 2 part-time) as it expands responsibly.

The support focuses on practical upgrades across the chain: improving processing equipment and workspace, strengthening milk testing and cooling at collection points, and building the skills of farmers and cooperative leaders on milk handling, feeding, and quality management.

By reinforcing these systems from collection to processing, the EDP helps reduce losses, protect milk quality, and secure a steadier route to market for small-scale producers, especially women supplying milk through cooperatives.

This matters because when Garden Dairy grows responsibly, the cooperative and its members gain more stable demand, clearer quality expectations, and stronger technical capacity, helping farmers supply milk with confidence and helping the cooperative reduce losses and improve collection systems.

Challenges that still hold the cooperative back

Despite the progress, challenges remain. Berehane points first to payment delays, which affect the cooperative’s ability to pay members quickly. “If we pay members fast,” she says, “We will get more people joining us.” When payments are delayed, farmers turn to other coping mechanisms, including selling processed products informally.

She also highlights seasonal patterns: during Kiremt (June to September), milk supply rises sharply. “During the rainy season,” she explains, “we get the most milk. The biggest we got is 3,325 litres in a day.”

To protect quality and reduce disputes, Berehane says the cooperative needs modern testing tools. Their current lactose testing device works, but it is outdated. “If we had an updated Lactoscan,” she explains, “we wouldn’t have to fight with our members. The technology would show whether the milk meets quality standards.”

She also points to high transport costs as a continuing burden.

“Together we can hold even a lion.”

Even with these challenges, Berhane’s pride is clear, not only in what the cooperative produces but also in what it represents for women’s leadership and local economic growth.

Before she took on this role, Berehane spent most of her days at home, carrying the responsibilities that rarely get recognised or paid. Today, she manages the cooperative’s daily operations, leading staff, overseeing milk collection and contracts, and helping steer the cooperative’s growth. 

“I’m happy I work here,” she says. “I’m not just staying at home. I come to work, and I go home knowing I’ve contributed.”

And when she speaks to other cooperatives starting out, she returns to the message of unity:

“A single strand breaks easily,” she says, “but when we weave our efforts together, we can hold even a lion.”

Her hope is simple and forward-looking: “I want the cooperative to expand more, with quality and quantity, to reach more people abundantly,” she says, “and to reach processing and beyond.”