Study sites

Meru is a town in Kenya's eastern region. It is the headquarters of Meru County and the country's fifth-largest metropolitan center. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS, 2019), Meru County urban population is estimated to be 138,918 people, while the rural population is 1,406,796 people. Nyeri County is located in the central region of Kenya. Its capital and largest town is Nyeri. It has a population of 759,164 of which 49639 are urban (KNBS, 2019). Kiambu County is located in the central region of Kenya and it has a population of 2,417,735 people. Its capital is Kiambu Town with an approximate population of 29723 (KNBS, 2019). In both counties, agriculture is the principal source of household food, raw materials for agro-based industries, and re-venue with the farmers growing a number of crops such as coffee, tea, maize, beans etc. and keeping livestock such as dairy cows, sheep, goats and poultry among others. The three counties are the country's highest concentration of dairy goat activities, including production, processing, and consumption.

Data collection, analysis and reporting

This section discusses data collection, analysis, and reporting. This study focused on supermarkets in the counties of Kiambu, Nyeri, and Meru. The target population was supermarkets and milk vendors in these regions which were mainly located in the urban areas of these regions. A descriptive survey methodology was adopted for this study. The target population for this study was all the supermarkets in Meru Town, Nyeri Town and Kiambu Town. Purposive sampling was used to obtain a sample of 40 supermarkets and 5 milk vendors in the three counties as follows: Nyeri (6), Meru town (3) and Kiambu (36). All available super-markets that sold dairy products were targeted; however, those that did not sell dairy products or those that were not willing to be surveyed were excluded. Close to all available supermarkets surveyed were medium to small scale in size and were mainly located in the towns. A closed-ended questionnaire was admini-stered to the managers of the outlets or their appointees coupled with an observation of the dairy products stocked in the outlets. Among the questions covered in the questionnaire include the type of dairy products stocked, the preferred dairy products they stocked, the sales preferences of the stocked dairy products, the type of dairy goat milk and products they  stocked,  the  reasons  for stocking and not stocking dairy goat milk and its products. Survey data were analyzed in SPSS version 25.  Descriptive statistics were used for reporting the findings of this study. All ethical considerations were taken into account when conducting the study.

Dairy products in the market

The results in Figure 1 indicate that within the dairy products, ten types of products were stocked by the supermarkets/milk vendors in the study areas as follows: Raw cow milk (11%), pasteurized cow milk (87%), long shelf life cow milk (82%), cow milk yoghurt (93%), ghee (24%), cow milk ice cream (67%), cow milk butter (31%), cow milk cheese (36%), cow sour milk (76%) and pasteurized goat milk (11%). Yoghurt remained the most stocked dairy product while  raw  cow  milk  (unprocessed milk) was the least stocked in all the supermarkets. . Among the dairy goat products only pasteurized milk was available in 5 outlets in Kiambu County only.  

Sales preferences of the dairy products

Table 1 reveals that generally, cow milk and its products dominate the Kenyan dairy industry market with long shelf life milk being the most sold dairy cow product followed by pasteurized milk and yoghurt in that order. Raw cow milk and pasteurized goat milk were ranked as the most preferred dairy product that sold very fast compared to ghee, cheese and butter which were the least sold dairy products in the supermarkets. Although yogurt was the most stocked product in all the supermarkets it was however ranked fourth when it came to sales preferences.

Reasons for stocking and for not stocking dairy goat products

Table 2 presents the reasons for stocking and not stocking the dairy goat products. The 5 supermarkets stocked dairy goat milk because of customers’ preferences and availability of the products (100%) from on farm processing plant known as Toggs within the County. The dairy goat milk products were not stocked due to the following: the dairy goat products were not available (63%), lack of customers’ awareness (40%), not preferred by customers (18%) and high price (10%). Observing the prices of pasteurized cow milk and goat milk in the surveyed outlets indicated that the price of goat milk was high with half litre costing Kshs. 167 (1.45$) compared with that of cow milk retailed at Kshs. 55 (0.48$).

General perception of dairy goat products

The general perception of the supermarkets is indicated in Table 3. The study reveals that dairy goat products were moderately preferred (36%) and highly preferred (4%). However, a large proportion of the customers (60%) did not prefer dairy goat products due to lack of awareness of its nutritional benefits.

As evident from the results, dairy cow milk and its products dominate the Kenyan dairy industry. Cow milk and its related products dominating the Kenyan dairy industry are not surprising since the same finding is common almost all over the world. In  many  instances,  a goat and in extension its products are universally considered as "poor man's cow" (Iqbal et al., 2008). This maybe the possible reason dairy products are rarely value added especially in developing countries. In this case out of the 45 supermarkets and milk vendors surveyed only 5 outlets sold dairy goat pasteurized milk (11%), which thus indicates the gap in marketing in dairy goat milk and its products in the study counties. Examining the sales preferences indicates that raw cow milk and pasteurized goat milk were the most preferred dairy products in terms of sales while ghee, cheese and butter were the least preferred dairy product in the supermarkets in terms of sales. This finding is important since it indicates that there is potential for dairy goat products especially the raw and pasteurized milk products. This coincides with the findings of Miller and Lu (2019) who indicate that due to increased consumers’ demand, high prices, and climate change, new dairy goat industries are emerging and rapidly expanding. The results reveal that the major reasons for not stocking dairy goat products are the products were not available, lack of customers’ awareness, the dairy goat products not being preferred by customers and high price. This finding is corroborated with the study findings of Ocak (2013) who found that the main reason for low goat milk consumption in Turkey was due to low commercial availability of the product. One of the possibilities of these finding is that there may be little output for processing as indicated by Kipserem et al. (2011). The study indicates that the factors of production may have a significant impact on the total output of dairy goat milk produced. Another possibility as indicated by Mbindyo et al. (2018) is that one of the biggest challenges in Meru County, in particular, was the lack of market for dairy goat milk. This is in line with the findings of Ogola et al. (2010), who stated that the dairy goat industry was hampered by a lack of market and distribution channels. The general perception of the supermarkets was that although dairy goat products was moderately and highly preferred by customers, a large proportion of the consumers did not prefer the dairy goat products due to lack of awareness of its existence and nutritional benefits. A similar study in South Africa indicates that majority of farmers were unaware of the nutritional benefits of goat milk but when the nutritional benefits of goat milk and/or its products were explained to them, a large number were willing to consume goat milk and/or its products (Idamokoro et al., 2019). As indicated by Ribeiro and Ribeiro (2010), goat milk is advantageous since its chemical properties can be used to make a variety of products such as low-fat, fortified, or flavored fluid beverage products and ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk, fermented products like cheese (McSweeney, 2007), buttermilk, or yogurt, frozen products like ice cream or frozen yogurt, butter, condensed/dried products, sweets, and candies. Other specialty items that are becoming popular with consumers include the use of goat  milk  in  products  that deal with hair, skin care, and other cosmetics. Thus, measures should be put in place to promote dairy goat milk as an alternative to dairy cow milk due to its high nutritive value (Turkmen, 2017; Jerop et al., 2014; Ali et al., 2010). Thus, measures should be put in place to promote dairy goat milk as an alternative to dairy cow milk due to its high nutritive value and potential (Bhattarai, 2014; Agustina et al., 2021).

This study indicates dairy goat products were not available in supermarkets or among milk vendors in Meru and Nyeri counties but they were available in a few outlets in Kiambu County. The demand for the dairy goat products is high which is evident from the high ranking of its sales preference by the outlets. The lack of customers’ awareness of the dairy goat products’ nutritional benefits and non-availability of the dairy goat products are major factors affecting the marketing of the dairy goat products. Thus, there is a huge potential for dairy goat products in the market that can be exploited. Creating consumer awareness of important nutritional and health benefits of dairy goat milk and its products is the key to capturing the existing market opportunities for dairy goat milk and its products.

The authors have not declared any conflict of interest.

The authors are grateful to Africa- ai- Japan for providing funding for this research, the enumerators who helped during data collection and the supermarkets and milk vendors that participated in this study.